Slide Into Another World...
by spikeobsessed
Summary: Well, the title explains the basic idea. Spike gets thrown into another world. Is he still chipped? Does he still love Buffy? And what's happening in the REAL Sunnydale? Find out...COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1 (Spike)

(Spike) - The reason for that being there will become clear later...honest...  
  
The bar was packed to it's full capacity that night, with every seat occupied and the money stacking up. Willie couldn't help but smile as he counted the amount he'd made so far. He didn't know what it was which was making all these demons and vampires flock there that night, but he wasn't going to argue. Suddenly, two demons leapt out of their chairs at the bars and left faster than seemed normal. He knew what that meant. The Slayer and her new boyfriend the neutered vampire Spike had arrived.  
  
"Move." the English vampire's voice commanded of a huge red demon. Unsurprisingly, the demon got up out of it's seat in record town, because even though Spike could no longer hurt humans, he could still beat everything else that moved to a bloody pulp, and enjoyed doing so as often as possible.  
  
"Guys!" Willie greeted them with false amiablilty as they sat down at the bar, with the Slayer putting a bag on the extra stool which Spike had cleared. "How are you? What can I get you?"  
  
"Shut up, boy." Spike snarled, obviously in a bad mood about something, and leant forwards menacingly. "We need info, we need it now, and you're gonna give it us." The bar was beginning to fill out as no one particularly wanted to be on the end of one of Spike's blows when he was angry.  
  
"Okay!" He held up his hands in surrender, speaking loud enough so his patrons would hear and hopefully stay "Here's the keys to the back room, just go in there and I'll see to you in a few minutes." Buffy shrugged, seemed fair enough. She could see her new boyfriend was geared up to stress the snitch for a while longer, but they didn't really have time for that. This information might give them the key to unlocking a mystery involving an Apocalypse.  
  
"C'mon," she muttered gently, taking his arm and starting to lead him away; but he pulled away and made a start for Willie, who yelped and jumped back. The vampire stopped just short and laughed before following the Slayer into the back room they'd been offered with the bag. Willie sighed heavily.  
  
"I hate that guy."  
  
Buffy sat opposite Spike and watched him light a cigarette and take a long drag before blowing out some smoke.  
  
"What's wrong with you tonight?" she queried. He shrugged silently. He wasn't going to tell her, but it was the secrecy that was bugging him. Why was it that he was good enough for a quick roll in the hay every night, but she wouldn't even give her best friends an inkling that he meant anything to her?  
  
"No, there's something wrong," she persisted "What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothin'." He grumbled, flicking his cigarette away in irritation. Why did he always do that? Didn't it just cost him more to keep buying cigs to replace the ones he got rid of?  
  
"C'mon, tell me - "  
  
"Look," Spike snapped, standing up and almost upturning the table "There's nothin' bloody wrong, so just leave it. Alright?" Buffy frowned at him, but didn't make a reply. If he was going to be like this then she wasn't going to keep making the effort to get along with him. "I'm gettin' a drink." he muttered and left without another word. As soon as he'd gone out of the door, he wished he hadn't taken all that out on her. He should have just told her what was wrong. He rolled his eyes and turned once again, pushing the door open. "Sorry, Buffy.." he started, but froze. Where was she? "Buffy?!" He called, with more urgency. No answer. But how could she have gotten out before him? The door he'd gone through was the only exit from the back room. She'd just disappeared.  
  
"Where is she?" Spike demanded angrily, bursting into the main bar and making straight for an indignant looing Willie.  
  
"Who?" he asked confusedly. The vampire slammed his fist down on the counter.  
  
"Buffy, genius. Where'd she go?" he growled. The bar-tender took a step back.  
  
"Look, buddy, I don't know who you think you are but you can't just come in here demanding the Slayer." he informed him in a stern tone. Spike gave him a look of complete disbelief.  
  
"Listen to me y' little sewer rat," he was getting in an even fouler mood now, and people were beginning to stop and look round. Someone sniggered at the sewer rat comment, but other than that there was now silence in the bar. "I was just in here, now, where is she?"  
  
"What?" Willie looked as confused as him "I've never seen you in here in my life!" Spike paused and leaned back. He grabbed someone's drink of whiskey and downed it.  
  
"You don't know who I am?" he asked slowly. Willie shrugged. He really didn't have a clue "No one in here knows who I am?" he called round. A sea of heads shook in the negative. This was totally messing his head up. He looked up at Wille, his eyes taking on a gleam of gold as his face changed. "You will." he snarled. Spike didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't happy about it, and he didn't care if the chip fried his brain all night, he was going to make it known to the bar tender. He grabbed him by the collar and gave him a sound punch in the face. He released him, expecting a mind-blowing headache, but nothing happened. He put a hand to his head and groaned. What was happening to him? He looked back up at Willie, who actually had the audacity to start calling him names, and decided he wasn't done. He began a vicious assault on the human, which resulted in him being knocked unconscious after having his nose, arm and leg broken. After that, Spike stalked out of the bar. He needed the gang on this and he needed them on it now.  
  
Blank looks all around. He had burst into the Magic Box, panting heavily from the run across town, and now he was stood there receiving blank looks all around. What the hell was going on? Why did no one know who he was? Giles had gotten out of his seat and was coming towards him.  
  
"I'm sorry, sir, we're closed." he informed him with the utmost politeness. Spike raised an eyebrow at him and sneered at being refered to as 'sir' by the Watcher.  
  
"Yeah, I know," he replied with a loud sigh and went to leave.  
  
"Wait!" Buffy's voice caused him to turn, a look of hope on his pale face. As the Slayer approached him, he was aware of a certain thing lacking in himself. What could it be? "I'm sure I know you." She came right up to him, scrutinizing him closely, watching curiously as an urgent expression replaced the hope of before. "Didn't you used to go Sunnydale college?" Spike's face fell.  
  
"No I bloody didn't." he spat fiercely, he'd been counting on her to remember him, but all she'd given him was a fuzzy incorrect memory from her days at college. With that, he turned on his heel and stalked outside. Stupid Scoobies.  
  
Why had he assumed they'd help him? What had they really ever given him? Nothing. He ambled angrily down the street, cursing everything and anything he'd ever come across. Spike reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigs, only to find it empty. "Well that's just soddin' great innit?!" he shouted furiously, drop-kicking the pack away and then punching a nearby wall. All he needed was a cigarette, and he was skint aswell. Then a small smile crept onto his face. The chip was apparently busted or not there, what did he need money for? And after all, what was there holding him back? Nothing. Spike started. Nothing? What about Buffy?  
  
What about Buffy?  
  
It then came to his attention that in this dimension he no longer loved the Slayer. So now his thoughts were free of her and he could do what he liked. He was beginning to like this place. A familiar voice called his name from behind him and he grimaced. He'd spoken way too soon.  
  
"Spike, where've you been?" It was Angelus (he could tell he'd lost his soul because he was wearing a loose white shirt, some hideous black leather trousers and his hair was even more gelled than usual, which was pure Angelus.).  
  
"Went for a walk..?" Spike replied, with a hint of question in his voice as he obviously didn't know whether or not he'd told them that or not. It sounded like something he'd say, though.  
  
"Yeah, I know dumbass," Angelus retorted "But you told us that three hours ago." We? On cue, Drusilla and Darla caught up to them. Spike's unbeating heart leapt at the sight of his Sire and he stepped forwards, only to be intercepted by Darla, who gave him a tender hug. Spike rolled his eyes.  
  
"Bloody hell." 


	2. Chapter 2 (Spike)

(Spike)  
  
"What was up with that guy?" Buffy mused half an hour later, after remaining silent since Spike's departure. There was something so familiar about him, but she just couldn't place it.  
  
"Who?" Xander queried, who's thoughts had obviously moved on.  
  
"Y'know," she had everyone's attention now "The English guy with the bleached hair." Willow's eyes showed a look of rememberance and she frowned.  
  
"I dunno," she replied "I thought the same as you, though. Maybe like I'd seen him before." Everyone agreed, except for Giles, who was frowning.  
  
"I think I remember more about him." he informed them before racing up the stairs to the higher level of the Magic Box. After some furious leafing through of various books, the gang heard the Watcher mutter a small passage over before resurfacing with a large black book. "Found him." he announced drily, coming down the steps and laying the book down on the table, open on one of the later pages. It appeared the book was in fact a Watcher's diary and the page now lay open on a sketch of their visitor. Giles picked up the book again and began to read.  
  
" 'Spike, formerly William the Bloody, in 1900 killed his first Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion.' " Buffy couldn't help a smile. The Watcher obviously hadn't been the most skilled writer, that had sounded like something from a school text book. Then the smile vanished as the words took meaning and she realised everyone was looking at her for a reaction.  
  
"'K."  
  
Darla took Spike's arm and entwined her own with it, smiling lovingly at him. He closed his eyes and seemed to be trying to calm himself down. Angelus frowned at him, usually he was all over Darla, so why did he look totally disgusted that she was even touching him?  
  
"Well isn't this great?" he drawled sarcastically, pushing Darla off him and shaking his head.  
  
"I think it is," Drusilla announced with a secretive smile "I've never met someone from another world in person before." Spike's head shot up and he looked right into her eyes.  
  
"What?" Angelus laughed with a frown, assuming she was just being her crazy old self before moving on swiftly. "So, what are we planning on doing tonight?" Darla went on to offer a reply whilst Spike remained looking intently at Drusilla, who grinned back at him.  
  
"How much do you know?" he mimed to her, carefully positioning himself so only them two could see what he was doing. Dru twirled her long fingers around in the air.  
  
"Everything, and now the gathering at the magic shop know too." she mimed back. Spike let out a soft chuckle at the first part, feeling pure relief that someone other than himself knew of his predicament. The second part didn't worry him too much. So they thought he was a brutal killer? Wasn't he just that? The chip was gone, after all.  
  
"Something funny?" Angelus demanded, he had obviously been discussing something important.  
  
"Nothin' at all, mate," Spike replied, but was unable to stop from smiling "I'll see y' later, right?"  
  
"Where are you going now?" Darla whined, reminding Spike why he hated her so much.  
  
"I've some business to attend to." he answered vaguely.  
  
"Business?" Angelus scorned "We got here last night, how much business could you have?"  
  
So that was why no one knew him. Spike grinned as he started to walk away. "Ask Dru."  
  
Spike sauntered down Revello Drive with a small smile on his lips. Everything had just gotten a whole lot easier now that Drusilla knew who he was. Now he wasn't totally alone. He cast his eyes upwards to the bedroom on the upstairs right of Buffy's house. Dawn's room. If he could count on anyone being coaxed into believing him, it was her. He ran forwards and scaled the wall of the house expertly, before perching on the window ledge of the teenager's bedroom. He saw her through the curtains, talking on the phone to one of her friends, and hesitated before tapping on the glass. Dawn yelped and dropped the phone, cutting off the call. She started to back away slowly.  
  
"Nibblet!" Spike called, and watched as she stopped dead. Something had been awakened inside of her. A memory which seemed from someone else's mind. "I swear I won't lay a finger on you." he promised, gesturing for her to unlatch the window and let him in. She was in two minds. She felt compelled to let him in, as if he was a friend and it was the normal thing to do, but she also felt scared and wary because he was a vampire; and a notorious one at that according to Giles. Finally, she walked painfully slowly towards the window and threw it open, immediately jerking backwards as he jumped inside. Dawn frowned at him.  
  
"But I haven't invited you in." she protested quietly as her sister was next door.  
  
"Not in this dimension, no," Spike whispered "But in the one I'm from, you did three years ago."  
  
"You're from a different dimension?!" Dawn exclaimed loudly, her eyes as wide as saucers. There was a knock on her door and Buffy's muffled voice reached them.  
  
"You okay in there, Dawn?" she asked, a hint of concern in her voice. Spike nodded, as if having to tell her that she was. The Slayer's little sister opened the door a tiny crack.  
  
"I'm fine, just on the phone to Morgan." she lied with an innocent smile. Buffy nodded.  
  
"Right, don't stay on too long, 'k?" she said affectionately. "Goodnight."  
  
Dawn slammed the door shut, turned around and whispered "You're from a different dimension?!"  
  
It was a few minutes to midnight, and Spike had just finished telling Dawn about everything which had transpired between them and the rest of the gang in the other dimension. The teenager hadn't spoken a word until he finished with when he'd came out of the bar to find no one knew him.  
  
"Wow." she breathed. "Everything you said, it happened, but without - you." The whole concept was kind of messing her up, just as he had said it would, but it was all so convincing. Spike frowned.  
  
"So Buffy died in this dimension too?" he asked, sounding confused. Dawn nodded and watched as Spike let out a huge sigh of relief and his eyes shone with tears. "It wasn't my fault." he muttered. The Slayer's little sister thought back in his story to where he had described his failure to save Buffy and felt a huge wave of sympathy sweep over her for the vampire.  
  
"No," she told him, nervously taking his hand "It wasn't." Spike looked up at her and smiled.  
  
"Then maybe this was all worth it just so I could know that." he chuckled.  
  
"Y'know, it was weird," Dawn was saying after getting up and walking over to the window "When we all saw you, everyone agreed it was like we'd seen you before." Spike raised an eyebrow.  
  
"And no one thought to suggest I was from an alternate dimension?" he replied drily. Then they fell silent; with Dawn wondering what type of things they would have talked about when they were friends, and Spike wondering just why the hell he'd been tossed back there in the first place.  
  
"Maybe I'm s'posed to change somethin'." he mused aloud, and upon catching the teen's quizical glance, elaborated "Y'know, maybe that's why I've been sent here. To change somethin'."  
  
"Maybe," Dawn agreed but then cast an eye to the clock "Look, it's been really, really cool but I've gotta be up for school tomorrow and Buffy's gonna freak if I'm late again."  
  
"Right," Spike was in another world, his mind whirling with possibilities "I'll talk to y'..soon." And with that he crossed to the window and hopped athletically out.  
  
The thought had occurred to Spike that he should have found out where he and his old buddies were staying, but that had unfortunately happened when he'd turned onto Revello Drive, so it was too late. He'd just have to rely on his intelligence and intuition. So, after four intelligent and intuitionly influenced visits to different spots around town, he found his way to their current location : the old factory. Conveniently not burned to the ground, he observed. Spike ambled through the main room, drinking in the familiar surroundings and taking note of any irregularities from his first stay there back in the real world. There was a rather hideous leather recliner in front of the fire place, which he assumed to be Angelus', but other than that the place looked pretty much the same. He flopped down on the long black sofa and closed his crystal blue eyes, he was mentally, emotionally and physically shattered and he didn't much fancy wanting to guess where he slept in this crazy dimension, especially with Darla around, so the sofa would do for now. He was just drifting off into quite a comfortable sleep when he heard soft, bare footsteps approaching him.  
  
"Unless it's important," he murmered in a tired voice "Bugger off."  
  
"It's me." Drusilla announced in a whisper, and watched as Spike opened his eyes and dragged himself into a sitting postion before she took a seat next to him. "I've come to ask you of your - our -other life in your world." she told him quietly in a conspirational tone.  
  
"In my dimension?" he whispered. She nodded excitedly and a tiny smile came onto her lips as he prepared to tell her a shortnened version of their relationship.  
  
"You Sired me in 1880 in London and we were just totally and utterly in love. I hated Angelus, and he was with Darla, who I also hated," Spike explained in the simplest terms which could be applied to his story, realising how his life resembled a twisted soap opera "But Angelus got cursed by gypsies and he got a soul, leaving us two alone to do what we pleased, which was to go on a rampage around Europe killing whoever we liked," he was smiling too now at the memory "But then we came here, to Sunnydale, in 1997, and everythin' went...wrong," He leant back, trying to instruct himself not to get too depressed when he began listing the troubles he'd faced "You left me after I helped the Slayer, which was in fact a plan to get you to stay with me, and from there it went down-hill. I got a chip in my head from the Government which prevented me from killing or hurting humans, and I was forced to help the Slayer and her lot." There was a long pause and Drusilla realised that he wasn't about to go into any more details of the personal kind.  
  
"Why did you come here?" she queried curiously. Spike shrugged.  
  
"Probably just the Powers That Be havin' a laugh."  
  
"Or maybe you're here on a mission." It was Angelus. How long had he been stood in the doorway, with that superior smirk on his face? Spike was in total disbelief. How could he not have noticed he was there? Was he that much off his game? No. It was just Drusilla. She had distracted him along with his memories. But again came the question - just how long had Angelus been standing there listening to every word he'd said?  
  
"How long-?"  
  
"He came with me." Drusilla explained, flashing a loving smiled at her Sire. Spike shot up.  
  
"What?!" he exclaimed furiously "You complete and utter cow! Here I was tellin' you in confidence about my life, and you knew the bloody Poof was stood there all along?!" Dru pouted unhappily and walked over to her lover, who put his arm protectively around her.  
  
"Look Dimension Boy," Angelus mocked, taking a menacing step forwards with his girlfriend hanging on his arm. "I think you've outstayed your welcome, and if you don't get outta here in the next ten seconds, you'll be feeling the sharper end of the nearest piece of wood." There was a pause and then he began. "One...two...three..."  
  
"If y' think you're gonna impress me with the fact that y' can finally count to ten, it won't work," Spike cut him short, already walking slowly towards the door "I 've got stuff to be doin' anyways." He lied cooly, waving his hand at them as if they were totally insignificant, feeling both their eyes burning into his back as he neared the door "Be seein' y'." He called, and then left. Right, now all he had to do was to find a half- decent place to sleep. Would Dawn still be awake? 


	3. Chapter 3 (Spike)

(Spike)  
  
The ice-cream in Dawn's dream was changing colour as she stared at it, she looked up at Xander, who had sold it to her for a frog from his caravan- shop.  
  
"But I ordered chocolate." she complained, holding up the white ice-cream accusingly. He shrugged and pushed the cone back to her before shutting up shop in her face. "I don't even like vanilla." she grumbled, before being shoved into by someone. She whipped round angrily, only to see that the offender was in fact Spike, and he looked worried.  
  
"Nibblet!" his voice seemed far away "Wake up!" She frowned. Then she opened her eyes and found herself looking into Spike's shining blue eyes.  
  
"Is this still a dream?" Dawn murmered sleepily. Spike shushed her hurredly.  
  
"No, this is real, I need a favour." he rushed, not wanting to speak more than was necessary in case they woke the Slayer in the next room. Dawn shot up in bed, clutching the covers to herself as she was suddenly hit by a draft. She looked over and saw her window open.  
  
"How did you get in?" she whispered sharply.  
  
"Oh, I just did." he replied vaguely, he wasn't about to get into details or anything.  
  
"Then why did you ask to be let in before?" Dawn queried.  
  
"I dunno, it just seemed the thing to do, 'cause y' didn't remember me," Spike stopped himself and shook his head to get himself back on task "I need a favour," she nodded him on "Can I sleep somewhere in the house tonight? Dru and Angelus kicked me out."  
  
Dawn looked frantic for a moment "You want to sleep in my house?" she repeated before calming herself down and thinking a moment. "I guess you could go into the basement b-"  
  
"Nice one," Spike cut her off and shot silently out of the room "G'night." Dawn glanced at the clock and groaned. It was 1am. She would never be able to get up on time now and Buffy was going to go insane. She wondered if Spike appeared asking for refuge in the middle of the night a lot in his world.  
  
Drusilla and Angelus sat before Darla and watched her reaction after they'd finished telling her Spike's strange story. She had nodded slowly along, as if she already knew, but that was just one of her many habits which were designed to give off an air of superiority.  
  
"I thought something was wrong with him last night," she informed them with a sniff "Of course I knew it had nothing to do with me, so it stands to reason there was a problem with Spike." Angelus threw Dru a look, but she didn't catch it, not that he'd really expected her to.  
  
"And you're not at all, I don't know, surprised by any of this?" he asked with a raised eyebrow at Darla's calm exterior.  
  
"I've seen stranger things." she replied vaguely with a small shrug.  
  
"Yeah, after all, you've been going out with Spike for over a century." Angelus quipped, only to receive a glare from Darla which would have frightened Satan himself and promptly shut up and look to the ground. He had almost forgotten how protective she was of Spike, their Spike, that is, but that just went to show how much she loved him. Even when he wasn't here she defended him.  
  
"His world seemed exciting." Drusilla told them with a giggle. Angelus looked worredly at her, trying to see if she meant because of all the twists and turns which had taken place in their lives, or if she meant because her and Darla's roles had been reversed. He finally decided she couldn't mean the latter, after all, she had him.  
  
"Seemed crappy to me," Darla retorted "I mean, you were with my Spike, and I was stuck with Angelus." He narrowed his eyes at her. She hadn't even bothered to add an insincere 'no offence'.  
  
"I think we should get rid of this other-dimension Spike," Angelus suggested after a pause "He'll only cause trouble, and trouble we don't need."  
  
"When?" Drusilla asked giddily, feeling eager for a good kill. Angelus smiled.  
  
"Tomorrow. As soon as the sun sets. Spike's going to die."  
  
Buffy frowned slightly as she hurried past the open door to the basement the next morning. Dawn slammed into her side, obviously tired and probably late. Again.  
  
"Can you hear that?" she asked, motioning down the basement steps.  
  
"What?" Dawn queried, almost urgently, stepping between her sister and the door.  
  
"Snoring?" Her sister frowned again. Dawn leaned down the stairs a bit and listened intently.  
  
"I wouldn't call it snoring," she replied "More of a heavy breathing."  
  
"Okay," Buffy amended impatiently "Can you hear a heavy breathing?"  
  
Dawn slammed the door shut with a cheery smile "Nope." The Slayer would have probably argued about the noise further, but she heard a horn beep outside and she rushed away to grab her bag.  
  
"I'm training with Giles," she explained, already halfway out the door "See you after school, bye!"  
  
Dawn's farewell was lost as her sister shut the door and ran down the pathway before hopping into Giles' shiny red convertable. She peered through the curtains, wondering why he had gotten it in the first place, before finally deciding on some sort of mid-life crisis. She let out a yelp of fear as a hand came to rest on her shoulder, and twirled around, only to see Spike stood before her.  
  
"Big Sis gone?" he yawned, scratching the back of his neck. Dawn sighed with relief.  
  
"What if I'd said no?" she accused, but he simply shrugged.  
  
"It wasn't really that much of a question," Spike explained "I heard her go, plus I know that on Mondays she goes for an early training session with Giles." Dawn nodded. It still felt weird that an apparent stranger knew so much about their lives.  
  
"So what are you going to do for the rest of the day?" she asked, pulling on her school backpack.  
  
Spike shrugged again. "Might go try and find somethin' to help me home." he told her. She smiled at him and told him she'd see him later before rushing off to school.  
  
"So then I said," Spike slurred, pointing his umpteenth glass of whiskey at one of his audience gathered at Jonny's bar, Willie's competitor, which he was becoming re-acquainted with. "'No!', I said, 'no'- I said this - me," He paused to drain his glass in one gulp and frowned. "Where was I?" Roars of laughter erupted from his small crowd and he received numerous pats on the back. The demons and vampires didn't know exactly who this guy was who'd been entertaining them for the past hour, but they liked him, and the drinks they kept buying him were ensuring he stayed as drunk as he was. Spike laughed along with them and staggered across to the bar to where Jonny, the owner and bar tender was grinning at him. He hadn't had a crowd stay for this long in ages, usually, they heard of a fight at Willie's and scampered off to watch, but apparently this vampire had hospitalised his only competition in the demon-bar world, leaving all his customers to him.  
  
"Give us another whiskey, Jonny, mate." Spike ordered, plopping down on a bar stool. The human got the drink quickly as he'd had it on hand and passed it over the bar.  
  
"On the house." he informed him with a friendly smile. Spike let out a short laugh.  
  
He chuckled "Like I'm gonna bloody pay!" The vampire seemed to find this concept hilarious and Jonny sighed. It looked like Spike was 'one of those' customers. The kind who knew that no matter how hard he could try, he couldn't make them pay for their drinks. Spike calmed down and looked at him with another short laugh "I like it," he smiled "Pay!"  
  
"Hey Spike," a young vampire who had been hanging around Spike ever since his arrival craved his attention from over his shoulder "Didn't you say you had to find a way home, or something?"  
  
Spike's smile fell and he shrugged. "I'll do it tomorrow. Right now, I think I'll have another whiskey."  
  
"But you haven't even drank that one." Jonny reminded him and watched as he downed it in one.  
  
"I'll pay another time." Spike laughed and set about drinking the Jack Daniels produced.  
  
The clock had just struck four when Buffy entered the bar, a look of purpose on her face. She strode down the steps confidentally, watching as the demons filtered out. Now that Willie had been hospitalised, she had decided to make a quick visit to Jonny's, just in case he had any information about the demon underworld which her other Snitch might not have. She approached the bar, and was about to start trying for information, when she recognised the unconscious figure slumped on a table.  
  
"Spike." she muttered under her breath, and all of Giles' words and warnings came into mind. He had told her that although he didn't look particularly strong from that thin, lithe frame, he was powerful and he was also very smart. Smart enough to get drunk and collapse on a bar table, she noted.  
  
"How long has he been asleep?" she asked Jonny in a whisper, wanting to know whether she had a chance at just being able to stake him in his sleep or not.  
  
"I'm not asleep." Buffy whirled around to see Spike stood before her, massaging his pounding head. That was the only thing with being a vampire, you sobered up really quick and really bad. The Slayer assumed a fighter's stance, and was surprised when he didn't. "Would y' mind if we did this another time? Only I've got this huge hangover." Buffy frowned. That was different. Usually vampires just charged headfirst into any fight with her, regardless of their physical state. And that he'd asked her to wait until another time wasn't exactly normal either.  
  
"No," she declined after a stunned pause. On her left, Jonny was creeping into the back room.  
  
"Oh c'mon!" he pleaded with a groan "How would you like to fight to the death with a throbbin' headache and blurry vision?" Buffy took out a stake impatiently and advanced, only to be careered past by a tall, dark haired guy, a blonde girl and a brunette, who stood before Spike. What was going on here?  
  
Angelus smirked evily at the hungover bleach blonde vampire before him and took a menacing step forwards, brandishing a stake like the Slayer behind him.  
  
"Sorry to tell you this," he said mockingly "But we've decided to kill you." Spike burst out laughing, not hysterical laughter, like he had hoped, but actual 'I find this amusing' chuckling.  
  
"Kill me?" he repeated between laughs "I can't believe you think y' can kill me!" Angelus looked at him questioningly and Spike elaborated slowly "I don't know what kind of attitude I showed to you and yours in this world, but in mine, I'm the Big Bad in this town and in every other," Spike was regaining some of his cocky swagger through the clouds of headache "So, yeah you can try and kill me, but you sure as hell aren't goin' to succeed." Pause "Mate." To his immense surprise, Angelus actually looked unsure of himself, and took a step backwards again. Buffy took his place.  
  
"What are you talking about 'this world'?" she asked in total and utter confusion.  
  
"Iccle Spikey's from a different dimension." Drusilla explained in her ear. Buffy raised the stake and she cried out and joined the trio again.  
  
"A different dimension?" Buffy queried again, growing only more confused. He nodded.  
  
"Yeah, and in that one you and me-" Spike remembered that his old hunting buddies were in the room and stopped short. Unfortunately, Buffy got his meaning from the look in his eye and blushed. "But yeah, different dimension, so none of you have any reason to try and kill me, right?" Okay, silence was never a good reaction when dealing with a hostile situation.  
  
"Well, I don't know about you, Slayer, but I'm still all for killing him."  
  
Spike's chest was heaving with effort as he ran as fast as he could down the rain-soaked streets of Sunnydale. He could still hear the pounding footsteps of his one remaining pursuer as he struggled to pick up speed. Which one was left? Buffy? Angelus? Darla? Or even Drusilla? He couldn't tell. Not least because he wasn't going to chance trying to check in case he gave them an opportunity to catch up and stake him. He bounded into the cemetary and started a sub-conscious journey to his old crypt. It was only when he reached the crumbling mausoleum that he realised where he had come to.  
  
"Damn it!" He shouted angrily before setting off into a string of curses directed at everything that came to mind. Luckily, very luckily, his follower had lost track of him when he'd made the sharp left into the cemetary, so now he had some time. Spike clamboured hurredly ontop of his crypt and peered into the distance. Yep. There it was : Buffy's house. Dark except in the one room where he'd hoped it would be light. Dawn's. He needed the help of someone who believed and sympathised with him and, thank God, she was in. He leapt off the crypt and, after a quick check of the surroundings, sped off towards Revello Drive.  
  
Dawn stepped away from her window and let her mind travel back to what it had been thinking all throughout school. Which was - If the other-world Spike was here, what had become of the Spike from this dimension? Was he just lost in a timeless space, his existance being used up by another self; or was there even another one at all? What if when the Spike she knew went home, her entire world ceased to exsist? But still, there was the strange, but plausable, notion that the two vampire's had switched places. And that now the other Spike was struggling along in the other world... 


	4. Chapter 4 (Other Spike)

(Other Spike) - See, I told you it would be necessary  
  
Spike found himself with his hand on the handle of a dingy, blue door and he realised to his annoyance that he had forgotten what he was doing there. Must be getting old. He shook his head and, still without a clue to his reason for being there, went inside the room which lead from the blue door. Inside, he found a pretty blonde girl, who he swore he recognised from somewhere and someplace, but couldn't think where, looking expectantly at the space he'd just occupied.  
  
"Sorry." he grumbled insincerely and went to leave, but she put a hand on his arm, not even being deterred by a warning growl. "What the bloody hell do y' think you're doin'? Get off!" he frowned.  
  
"C'mon, Spike, don't be like that," the blonde pleaded earnestly "I know what you were upset about before, and I swear I'll tell them about us soon. I'm sorry." Spike shook her off and gave her a cold look, assuming she was just plain insane, but also wondering how she knew his name.  
  
"Bugger off, would y'?" Spike shook his head and turned to go, but once again he was held back.  
  
"I said I'm sorry, Spike, what more do you want?" the blonde demanded, now angry. With a snarl, he let his face slide into it's vampire form and whipped around to face her straight. She didn't even flinch. "Hello? I asked you a question." she prompted him, hand on hip. Spike didn't know who this girl was who claimed to know him, but she was irritating him, so she was in for it. He grabbed her by the back of her neck and shot forwards. His fangs grazed the skin of her neck and then he was hit by a sudden crippling pain which sent him flying backwards, clutching his head.  
  
"Oh my God," the blonde gasped, horrified not at his vampiric actions, but that they had been directed at her. "I can't believe you - you.." Then, with an emotionally agonised cry, ran out of the room, a single solitary tear running down her cheek. Spike straightened up and frowned worredly.  
  
"What the hell?"  
  
He walked out of the room, still with a perplexed frown darkening his features, only to have it replaced by a look of surprise as he found himself in a bar where a small man hurried up to him.  
  
"Look, Spike," he stammered "You can't keep doing this, if you and your lady want a place to," he coughed nervously "Y'know, well you can find somewhere else. You've totally cleared out my bar."  
  
"What?" Spike's head was spinning. Where was he and why did everyone seem to know him?  
  
"I'm just saying, man, you're one of my best customers," the man continued "But you can't keep -"  
  
"Where am I?" Spike broke in impatiently, massaging his head wearily.  
  
The man gave him a confused look to match his own "Willie's bar," he said slowly "My bar."  
  
"How do you know me?" Spike asked him suddenly, beginning to smell a very big rat. Something was wrong and he was getting the feeling that it wasn't something small.  
  
"Man, are you alright?" Willie frowned, only to step back after a warning glare "I - I know you 'cause you come here to drown your sorrows about five times a week." he explained patronisingly, as if Spike should know this. His attitude took a sudden turn for the worst and he whipped round.  
  
"Listen to me," he snarled "I don't know what's goin' on, but 'till I find out who's responsible, I'm placin' the blame on you." Willie took a cautious step back "So watch your back." Spike gave him a quick smack, but was once again hit by the same blinding pain he'd had before. When he looked up again, the bar-tender had scarpered. Spike cursed loudly and upturned anything which wasn't fixed to the floor; then he stalked outside to see just where the hell he was.  
  
Sunnydale. He was still in Sunnydale. That was good. Not as good as it could be, as he'd only gotten in town last night and didn't know his way around, but still, it was good. Now all he needed to do was find Angelus and the rest of the gang, get them to figure out what was happening to him, and he'd be fine. Wouldn't he? Yeah, he'd be absolutely fine.  
  
"Spike!" Not again. Yet another person who claimed to know him; this time it was a tall dark haired guy, looking very annoyed with him. "What the hell's your problem?" he demanded.  
  
"I don't know," Spike sighed wearily "But everyone else probably does."  
  
"I just ran into Buffy." the guy told him. Spike guessed that was the blonde from before, but couldn't stop from smirking at the name. Buffy? Mother must be a right character. "She told me it was your fault she was crying, so I wanna know just what you did to her."  
  
"Nothin'!" Spike exclaimed, radiating irritation. The reason in him was telling him not to attempt to hurt the human as he'd more than likely have another migraine, so he just glared. "I didn't do a bloody thing! How could I? I don't know anyone here, but everyone claims to know me, don't they?"  
  
The guy frowned at him. "Was that some kind of weird metaphor?" he asked in confusion. The vampire turned to leave. This - thing - that was happening to him was just no longer funny. He was going to go and find Darla and the rest before yet another mystery person appeared to talk to him.  
  
"Don't walk away from me!" The guy ordered him indignantly. Spike stopped and slowly turned to face him; and for the first time since he'd gotten the chip, Xander felt wary of him.  
  
"No one orders me about,boy," he growled menacingly, staring him dead in the eye "No matter what. You talk like the to me again, and we'll have ourselves a problem."  
  
Xander re-entered the Magic Box to find that the Slayer had already left and that only Giles, Willow and Anya remained. The latter waiting for him to come back so they could go to the cinema.  
  
"Well?" Giles queried expectantly. Probably thinking that, Spike being unable to defend himself, had been smacked about a bit and gone home with a huge headache after trying to retaliate. That was what everyone had expected, really.  
  
"I think something's," Xander paused, thinking how best to word it "Wrong, with Spike."  
  
"How do you mean?" Willow asked interestedly. Immediately, the group's mind flashed to thoughts of the chip and the Wiccan gasped "Is it out?"  
  
"I don't know." Xander admitted with a sigh "He was just so...like his old self."  
  
"Well he does get like that occasionally," Anya offered cheerily "You can't just forget that you used to be evil and had power. He probably had a fight with Buffy and it got him grumpy." Xander thought this over, but was far from convinced. The look he'd been thrown would have been enough to make even the Slayer hesitant to get into a fight.  
  
"Well, even if there's a small chance that something has happened to the chip," Giles spoke up in his usual halting voice "We need to investigate as soon as possible. We all remember what he was like..."  
  
Anya didn't, but she sensed this was one of those times where she was supposed to be quiet, so she just linked her finace's arm in her own and smiled at him.  
  
"What about Buffy?" he asked after a moment. No one was stupid. Everyone could see the pair had grown close, they just didn't know how close they had gotten. Giles lowered his eyes.  
  
"No one is to tell her," he decided "We'll only get her involved if it's absolutely necessary."  
  
"What the bloody hell..?!" The factory was burnt to a crisp. Spike couldn't believe he was looking at the same place he had been walking round with Darla the previous night. And worst of all, upon venturing inside the ruins, he had found that everything looked as though it had lain like that for a very long time. This wasn't anything new. The wreck was at least three years old. But how could that be? He had been in there last night. Something had gone very, very wrong. Perhaps someone had cast a spell making him travel forward in time? No. He'd checked the date and all that before when he'd wandered through town. Something was just...just...wrong. "Well where are Angelus, Dru and Darla, then?" he muttered aloud to himself as he made his way back outside into the warm night air. His head was still aching from when he'd hurt another human outside a shop. What was up with that?  
  
"Well that settles it," he announced to the night as soon as his mind had come to a conclusion concerning his strange predicament "Someone's messed with my head."  
  
"Who you talking to, Spike?"  
  
A young girl approached him dressed in black 'I'm-sneaking-out-the-house' gear. The vampire closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again to see the little girl stood right up close to him. He took a step back from the personal space invasion.  
  
"Well I'm certainly not talking to little girls who are in danger of bein' killed unless they get back to their nice warm beds." Spike growled, narrowing his eyes at her. He couldn't believe that this teenager was calmly talking to him in a dark alley like they were best mates. The girl frowned for a second before tutting to herself and taking down her hood, thinking he'd just not recognised her.  
  
"It's me - Dawn." she informed him in a whisper. "What you doing here?"  
  
"Gettin' totally confused." Spike admitted with a sigh. Suddenly he leapt away from her. He'd just relaxed into her friendly demeanor. It was like he knew her. But he couldn't. "Look, get lost, right? I'm not havin' the best of nights and I need to think." He paused. He'd done it again. Why was he giving a complete stranger details? Usually he would just walk away. But this was not 'usually'.  
  
"You have a fight with Buffy?" Dawn asked him in a sympathetic tone.  
  
Spike rolled his eyes "Apparently so." he leant back against the wall, conceeding the fact that he'd have to stand and talk to her. Something was compelling him to do so. Dawn dismissed his answer.  
  
"I swear, my sister is so over the top," Dawn complained and managed to get Spike's attention. She was Buffy's sister? "I mean sure a Slayer's got extra senses, or whatever, but she just makes a big deal of everything."  
  
"Slayer." Spike mumbled. So that was who this mysterious Buffy was. A plan emerged in his sharp mind. Maybe he could use this whole situation to his advantage. "So, tell me about life with Buffy."  
  
Her pillow was wet with tears as Buffy cried silently into it at home on her bed. She was trying her hardest to stay quiet as Dawn was in the next room and if she heard her then the whole relationship with Spike would have to come out in the open. Her heart felt like it was breaking. Just when she'd thought she was getting to know the real Spike, the one who cared for her even when everyone had given up hope, he went and did something like this. And over what? Because she hadn't told her friends that they were - going out was the wrong word, but it was the closest she could come to describing their situation. He had seriously gone to bite her. Not even caring that the chip would kick in. It was as if he was trying to work through the pain just so he could kill her. Buffy let out a loud sob, but buried her head further into the pillow to try and muffle the rest that followed. Why was this hurting so much? Surely she didn't love him...? 


	5. Chapter 5 (Other Spike)

(Other Spike)  
  
This was great. Spike, the great and terrifying killer, was now walking the streets of Sunnydale, the demon capital, finding himself unable to stop from talking to a fifteen year old girl. But not everything about the situation was excruciatingly pathetic, he was finding out more and more about what was going on. He now gathered that he was in an alternate dimension where someone had put something in his head which stopped him from hurting humans and where he was in a relationship with the Slayer. How crap was that? Who the heck wanted to be in a 'relationship' with anyone? Least of all the Slayer. Spike prefered to be free from ties like that. Well, except when it came to his beloved Darla. She was the only one he'd ever stuck with. Angelus, on the other hand, had been with that insane, but most of the time charming, Drusilla for about two centuries. Boring much?  
  
"Huh?" Spike snapped back to reality (if this could be called that) and realised that Dawn had asked him a question of some sort. She rolled her eyes impatiently.  
  
"I asked what was going on with you and my sister." she repeated "Really." Spike shrugged. It wasn't his world. Why should he care what these people did and did not know?  
  
"We're goin' out and we sleep together every night." he said simply, having to guess that was the situation. Even if it wasn't, it would cause some waves in this lot's lives. Dawn's mouth dropped open and she stared mutely at him. Spike spotted the guy from before coming towards them and nudged the teenager back to animation.  
  
"Xander!" she exclaimed with unnecessary volume, trying to cover up her shock at Spike's blunt, but not totally un-anticipated, answer. He noted down the name.  
  
"What the hell are you doing out at this time with him?" Xander demanded angrily. Spike also noted down the obvious dislike the pair must have for each other.  
  
"I-was..erm.." Dawn stammered hurredly  
  
"She was sleepwalking and I caught her about to get attacked," Spike replied convincingly and cooly, so much so that Dawn looked sideways at him "So that's what the hell she's doing with me at this time of night." Xander didn't look happy at being shot down like that,but he thought back to the look he received before and decided it would be best to just go with it.  
  
"Oh, thanks." he muttered and took Dawn by the arm "I'll take you home, c'mon, Anya's waiting in the car." Spike nodded a goodbye to the young girl and smiled to himself. He loved plotting.  
  
Xander walked Dawn up the path to her home, casting an apologetic glance back at Anya who was obviously less than happy at having to escort the Slayer's little sister home. In her opinion, if Buffy disciplined her better, this type of thing wouldn't happen. Especially not when her and her finacee had just been on a date. He stopped outside the door, knowing Dawn was going to climb up the pipes anyway, so as not to alert Buffy, and turned to her.  
  
"Y'know what Spike said?" he began nervously "Was it true?" Dawn was quick to assure him that it was the absolute and nothing but. Although he knew it was a lie, he nodded.  
  
"I know this is going to sound strange," Xander reproached her, hoping to get past her defences of the vampire and to the facts "But was Spike acting a bit different?" Dawn thought back.  
  
"Well at first I thought he didn't recognise me so I took my hood down," she answered brightly "But he still looked blank 'till I said my name. Other than that, which could be put down to the light, no." Xander continued to silently look at her and she realised that she'd proved her own lie to be just that. A lie. He decided to let it slip and carried on slowly.  
  
"I think something's happened to him," he informed her in a whisper "He's been acting a little, well, un-chipped lately." Dawn's eyes widened.  
  
"He'd never hurt me!" she exclaimed, but she sounded worried. Xander nodded again.  
  
"I know," he lied "But just look out. Okay?" Dawn promised she would and started up the pipes as Xander began towards his car and his waiting finacee. Then he turned again. "And don't tell your sister!" he whispered sharply. Dawn remembered Spike's earlier revelation and blushed into the night.  
  
"Right." She called back. As she passed Buffy's room, she looked in to see her tossing in bed. Dawn shook her head. She hated bad dreams. What was her sister dreaming about?  
  
After she'd finally stopped crying, Buffy had fallen into a troubled sleep. She was plagued by dreams which all centred around Spike. The question 'why?' was a recurring theme aswell. Why had he tried to bite her? Why had he been so cold and unfeeling when he'd come back into the room at Willie's? Why was this still bothering her? It was a big thing, sure, but it wasn't the type of thing she'd usually lose sleep over. But in every dream he was pushed in, and always to tell her the same thing...  
  
~All the colours imaginable swirled gracefully around Buffy's head as she found herself floating in  
  
what she could only describe as a tunnel. Then the sound came echoing to her.  
  
"Why?" It was Dawn's voice. And it was soon joined by Xander's, then Willow's, and one by one everyone she'd ever known was asking the question.  
  
"I don't know!" she told them with a jerk of emotion. "What are you asking me? Why what?" Suddenly something seemed to tap her on the shoulder. She whipped around and came face to face with Spike. He'd been crying and his cheeks were wet with tears. He slowly put a hand to the back of his head before producing it for her to see. Blood stained his palms. Buffy grabbed him and felt beneath his bleach blonde hair and surely enough, her hands came away bloody from the gash at the back. Buffy let out a surprised and upset cry and stared at her hands. Spike then gently cupped her chin and lifted her eyes to his crystal blue ones. He gave her a kiss on the forhead before re-establishing eye-contact with her.  
  
"I'm lost." he whispered to her in an infinitely sad voice, before coming to repeat the phrase in an ever fading tone which suggested panic. Buffy reached out to him, but her hands went right through.  
  
"Come back!" she pleaded as his form drifted into the colour surrounding them "Please! I don't want you to be lost! Find your way home! Please, Spike!" ~  
  
And then Buffy started awake, sweat beaded on her forhead, highlighted by the moonlight streaming in from her bedroom window. Every time it was the same. She find the cut on his head and he'd proclaim he was lost. But that was he first time she'd begged him to return to her. Buffy put her head in her hands. She knew what a dream like this meant. She'd had a couple of them before. Prophetic dreams, Giles had called them. Something was happening - or going to happen - to Spike. And she needed to find out what.  
  
Who would let Spike know about his own history in this world without getting suspicious? It didn't help that he didn't have the faintest who anyone was here, but he was determind to find out. Not just because he needed a convincing story if he was going to kill the Slayer by getting through to her by means of friendship and whatever, but because it would be interesting to find out what kind of a life he would lead if things had gone differently in the past. He was absently humming the theme tune to one of the James Bond films (he couldn't remember which it was from) when he was stopped in the street by a reptilian looking demon with a scowl on his face.  
  
"You still haven't paid the boss, have you?" the thing growled. Spike hesitated.  
  
"Yes I have." he lied perfectly "I paid him," Pause "Today." The demon's frown turned into a grin.  
  
"Good," he smiled, throwing his arm around the vampire's shoulder "Great." Spike smiled nervously back at him, trying to asses him. He was, on closer inspection, a Morhrag demon, and seemed to be a collector of debts for someone big in town. And apparentally a friend.  
  
"So how's your life?" Spike asked amiably as the pair began to walk, wondering how the hell he would be able to turn the conversation around with a question which didn't resemble 'What happened in my life? I'm from a different dimension and I need to know so I can kill the Slayer.' Then - bang! A spanner was hurled firmly into the works. One tiny fact had slipped his mind. How could he kill the Slayer with the thing in his head? Momentary panic struck him. How would he survive like this?  
  
"Nevermind me, I want to congratulate you," the Morhrag said to him "When you told the boss you could pay the money, I didn't believe you, but you've been true to your word." Spike looked at him, trying to remain calm as billions of troubles hit him again and again. "So now you've scratched our back, we'll scratch yours," The demon chuckled "Well, your brain." He seemed to find this hilarious, but Spike couldn't even raise a smile. How did the other him survive like this? It must be a truly awful existance, and it looked as though he was doing nothing about it. "Cheer up, buddy." the demon gave him a friendly pat on the back "This time tomorrow you'll be awake and totally chipless." 


	6. Chapter 6 (Spike)

(Spike)  
  
Even though no one was now pursuing him, Spike still ran top speed on his way to Buffy's house. He didn't want to bump into the Slayer, or anyone else that was chasing him. The good thing was that now Buffy knew that he was from a different dimension in which he was considered a friend by all. The bad thing was for some reason she still wanted to kill him. Stood to reason though, didn't it? She threatened to kill him even when they were going out. Suddenly, with only a second's notice, the skies opened up and rain hammered down onto his shoulders and bounced off the street. A flash of lightning was closly followed by a roll of thunder which echoed around the empty streets. Only in Sunnydale would you get a storm on this scale seconds after perfect calm. Spike chanced a glance behind him, just in case, and to his relief found nobody there. In front of him, on the other hand, a huge guy wearing a black balaclava stood resolutely in his path. Spike, not having time to slow down, smacked right into him, knocking the guy to the floor with ease. The vampire took a moment to be grateful for the lack of pain after the knock down before setting off again. Stupid muggers. They should be more careful who they target. Then a memory flashed into his mind. He took another look behind him to where the big guy was being helped up by even more of the same type and size. He was sure he recognised the...  
  
"Bloody hell!" Spike exclaimed in frustration. That was where he remembered them from. They were part of the Initiative. Why the hell hadn't the Buffy in this world found out about and destroyed them yet? He should leave some sort of note if he ever got out of this. He stumbled him way onto Revello Drive panting with exhaustion. Legging it around 24/7 when you were hungover wasn't really on his 'I love to do' list. Then again neither was wading about in filthy sewage. Which was where he found himself after he fell down an open man-hole. The vampire shook his head. He didn't even get a break in an alternate dimension, did he?  
  
The walkie-talkie crackled in his hand as Riley Finn's replacement awaited a response to his call for information. He had taken the soldier's place after he had deserted the Initiative for the Slayer. Lucky for them, Buffy had never found out their true agenda. Christopher Tollen was growing impatient.  
  
"We've lost him, sir." A slightly distorted voice told him "Over."  
  
"Where? Over." Chris demanded in irritation. His base had heard last night that William the Bloody aka Spike had arrived in town, and he had been counting on his team to be able to catch him. It would be his biggest accomplishment yet. Maggie Walsh would be proud that he had caught such a feared and famous vampire without even calling for back-up. That's how he's planned it, anyway.  
  
"Revello Drive," His fellow soldier informed him. "Sir, I think we'll need back-up on this one, over."  
  
Chris muttered a curse "No," he decided, sticking to his plan "Find him. I'll search underground and you and the rest of the team look around the block. Over and out." After checking he had appropriate weapons on hand, Christopher set off towards the nearest sewer entrance. He knew that the vampire would probably end up there eventually, and he wanted all the glory for himself.  
  
Buffy peered through the darkness surrounding her and let out an angry sigh. She had lost Spike just outside the cemetary. He was fast, she'd give him that, but what else was he? He claimed he was from a different dimension, but that was impossible, wasn't it? Yeah, and demons are only things that people made up to scare children. But if she deep down knew he was telling the truth, why had she pursued him? Why hadn't she let him go? She knew why. Because Spike had hospitalised Willie, meaning he had no inhibitions about hurting, or killing, humans; and her job was to protect humans. Suddenly, the bush she was stood behind rustled as someone brushed against the other side. Buffy silently pushed some leaves aside and saw the three vampires from earlier stood there conversing.  
  
"It's your fault we lost him, Angelus." The blonde was complaining. "He's probably out there right now putting shame to my poor Childe's reputation."  
  
"Yeah, Darla," Angelus retorted sarcastically "I'm sure that's exactly what he's doing. Not by any chance running for his life from the Slayer."  
  
"He's not running from her anymore." The brunette announced in a dreamy whisper. All eyes turned to her. "He runs from men in uniforms," she told them in a haunting sing-song voice "They wish to capture him and put an electric toy in his head."  
  
"The one he got in his world?" Darla exclaimed worredly. Drusilla nodded. "Oh my god! What if this affects my Spike, the real Spike?" she asked in horror "What if when he gets back he won't be able to hurt or kill humans?"  
  
"Then I guess we'll have to kill him, too." Angelus supplied with a cheery smile. Darla glared at him once again and he promptly shut up. Meanwhile, Buffy was frowning.  
  
"What?"  
  
The smell was almost overpowering. To a human it would just be absolutely foul, but to a vampire with refined senses of smell, it was sickening. Spike felt his stomach lurch as he fought his way through the tunnels beneath Sunnydale. He wasn't getting captured. He'd do anything not to have to go through the agonies of that again. The pain when he'd woken up after the operation to insert the chip into his brain had been awful, but it was nothing to compare to the torture he went through every time the damn thing set off. Spike wondered absently why he was able to throw up if he was clinically dead, but then his attention was back fully onto the task of trying to evade the Initiative. He paused in a slightly better smelling chamber of the labyrinth which ran under the Hellmouth and tried to find his feet. It seemed like he'd done nothing but run for the past two days. His head shot up as his sensitive ears picked up a noise coming from the tunnel he'd just emerged from. Footsteps. And a voice followed by the crackling of a radio.  
  
"Anything new? Over." A guy's voice. An apparently cocky guy, who didn't think to whisper when he was following a - how did they refer to him? - HST. Spike had a guess that those letters stood for 'hostile sub- terestrial' or something as equally unnecessarily technological, but he wasn't sure. Someone responded, but the distortion was too great for the vampire to catch the sentence.  
  
"I'm pursuing in the tunnels," the guy informed him "Nothing yet. Report as soon as you see anything. Over and out." Spike glanced around himself as the footsteps drew ever nearer before deciding on a suitable hiding place. He had just gotten into position when the guy made an appearance. He was about 5'11, with sandy blonde hair similar to Spike's natural colour, and a large, muscular frame. Spike came forward ever-so-slightly and was able to read his name-tag.  
  
"Christopher Tollen," he whispered as the aforementioned left the chamber. "You've neutered your last demon." With a sinister smile, Spike tip-toed after him.  
  
"Ew." The Slayer protested quietly as she lowered herself down a man-hole not far from the one where she'd just seen Angelus, Darla and Drusilla disappear into. The place stank to high heaven. Yep. She got the glamorous jobs. She had followed the vampires to where Dru had informed them Spike was hiding before splitting off. Now she was off to conduct her own search. If, that is, she could stand the smell for all that long. However, as she made her way down the tunnel she'd landed in, she spared a thought for the four vampires in there with her. If this was bad for her, it must be ten times worse for them. Buffy stood absolutely still, just as Giles had taught her to do, and listened with every fibre of her being. The smell faded thankfully away with the rest of the world, and her ears attuned with the sounds of everything around her. She could hear three apparent male footsteps, one clearly creeping along, and two female ones. That accounted for Angelus, Spike, Darla and Drusilla, but who was the remaining guy? She brought herself back to now, wrinkling her nose again at the stench, and began in the direction of the creeping footsteps she'd almost not heard. If she was Spike, she'd been sneaking around too.  
  
A million shadows danced on the curved walls surrounding Chris and he was struck by a sudden attack of clostrophobia. He put a steadying hand on the wall and quickly regained his balance, but the feeling had unnerved him. He had been severely clostrophobic in his earlier years, but the Initiative's training had cured him of that. Supposedly. He shook his head free of any clouds and began again in his search for Spike. How many branches did these sewers have? He felt like he was a rat in a maze. A very small maze. Chris scolded himself, trying to bring up everything the Initiative had taught him about mastering his fear of enclosed spaces, but he still couldn't get rid of that nagging little fact in the back of his mind : these tunnels were decades, if not a century, old and could collapse ontop of him at any moment. That would put an end to all his hopes of greatness, wouldn't it? The queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach subsided, only to be replaced by an anxious fear as the sound of a Zippo lighter being flicked open sounded behind him. The tunnel was lit up by the small flame, casting away all the haunting shadows which had plagued them, before Spike had finished lighting his cigarette and let the lid of the Zippo snap shut. Now only the light from the chamber behind the vampire was allowing them to see, and it was causing demonic shadows on his smirking face.  
  
"What's the matter, mate?" he drawled with mock concern "Y' look a little shaky. Not clostrophobic, are y'?" Chris was painfully aware that the hand he was using to hold a wooden cross was twitching noticably as he reached for a stake in his back pocket. "Must be horrible, that," Spike continued, his cruel smile broadening "Feelin' like the walls are slowly closin' in on you, and you've nowhere to escape. Feelin' like the tunnel's workin' it's way to crushin' you to death." Christopher's stomach turned and he almost dropped the cross altogether. He looked away for a second, as if to check that the things the vampire was describing weren't happening, and in that instant, Spike was upon him. He knocked his weapons from him and bit down hungrily on his thick neck.  
  
The terrified, agonised shout echoed through the tunnels and reached everyone in it not long after Chris Tollen had made it, and Buffy knew she'd made the right choice. Spike may have been all good and helpful in his own world, but in this he was chipless and didn't give a damn about anyone's feelings. The proof was in the echoing scream lingering around her.  
  
Spike raised his bloody mouth from Christopher's lifeless neck and licked his lips. He could feel the blood warming his body. Just like he remembered. God he'd missed this. He'd told himself he hadn't, that Buffy's love could replace his lust for killing, but the truth was he could never get rid of the urge to kill. That was what he was made to do. Vampires killed. It was a fact. He let the soldier's body flop to the floor with a thud before he looked around him. At least five crosses were being brandished around him. The Initiative had come to find their commander. And they'd succeeded. Two of them raised a net, and a third produced a powerful looking stun gun.  
  
"Bugger." 


	7. Chapter 7 (Spike)

(Spike)  
  
Why the bloody hell had they kept him conscious? They hadn't kept him conscious the last time. They'd dragged him into a bush and then knocked him out with the end of the gun they'd used to electrocute him with. They'd probably done it because he'd just been found with the blood of their commanding officer on his lips. That would get anyone annoyed. So -  
  
"Ow!" Were they purposefully dragging him through a bed of sharp rocks? Spike managed to turn his head a little in the netting and recognised where he was. In the woods, and he could see the secret entrance to the Initiative looming. He looked up to the sky and frowned. Why was it light enough to see in the middle of the night when there was no moon? Wait. Why did he give a damn? And why in God's name was this netting so efficient? He couldn't move a bloody muscle, no matter how hard he tried. He was snapped suddenly back to reality as yet another rock tore into his bleeding back. He was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor as they reached the door.  
  
"Team 12 reporting back, we've captured William the Bloody." One guy spoke into the intercom.  
  
"Spike!" he called up. He hated being called William.  
  
"Erm, we've captured Spike." The guy amended immediately, then realised he'd just obeyed an order from someone in a net at his feet and kicked the vampire. "Shut up." he frowned.  
  
"No way, as in the Spike?" Another guy who sounded like a stereotypical surfer responded. The vampire rolled his eyes. He was sure that guy was a genius.  
  
"Open the door, Luke." The guy who had now risen to the rank of officer because of Christopher's death snapped and his request was seen to. Then Spike only had a smooth floor to slide across. Did they drag him last time? No. They definitely carried him. Things were getting sloppy in secret demon- killing government organisations these days. How long before the operation?  
  
"You lot won't keep me conscious throughout the operation, will y'?" he asked drily. Obviously not, he thought, as he was hit in the head with the end of a stun-gun and blacked out. Ah, the memories.  
  
Buffy looked distastefully at the dead body on the floor in front of her. She was surprised the Initiative hadn't cleaned it up. Things were getting sloppy in secret demon-killing government organisations these days. At first she'd denied it was the Initiative. After their last encounter, they had assured her they'd be wrapping up their work pretty soon, not having the resources to continue. But you'd be a fool not to notice that the dead man was wearing army gear and was clearly a member. Well, they had lied, that was for sure. How could they not have the resources to carry on, but have the resources to capture Spike? Because she was positive that was where he was. Maybe his shouts of 'Let me go! I'm gonna tear your bloody throats out as soon as I'm free, then we'll see who's all big and bad with the nets.' were a clue, but Buffy was convinced she'd have come to the conclusion herself had she not heard that followed by a curse damning the Initiative to hell. Yeah, of course she would've. The Slayer's focus was completely regained as she heard a bump somewhere in the distance telling her the three vampires were closing in. So once again she looked down at the body, and couldn't help but shiver. His face was frozen in a contorted expression of pain and fear, and his hand looked as though it were still grasping some sort of weapon. It was vile. No matter how many times she saw dead people, Buffy just couldn't get used to it. It didn't bother her as much now, but that didn't mean she wasn't freaked. The Slayer wrenced her eyes away from the horror on the ground and quickly left the disgusting tunnels, gasping in fresh air hungrily. She'd learned what she needed, now she was going to go and confront the Initiative. Wait! Wasn't Dawn at home alone? Damn it. She'd stop off there first, then.  
  
Neither of the three vampires gathered around the body of Christopher Tollen looked particularly bothered by the terror on the man's face. If anything, Darla seemed proud that 'her little Spike' could insight such horror even beyond life. But what was bothering them was that he had gotten away.  
  
"If it wasn't for you, we would've been here faster." Angelus accused Drusilla in an irritated mutter.  
  
"What I was saying was important." She pouted unhappily, trying to stay focused and not to look at all the pretty shadows twirling around her.  
  
"What was it again?" Darla asked in a mocking tone " 'Even in this world it happens, how can he see without a moon?'. Yeah, that was totally worth stopping for." Drusilla hardly heard her. She'd failed in her task not to look at the patterns being made on the wall and was swaying in time with them.  
  
"Why..?" Darla sighed, motioning to the mad vampire. Angelus smiled at her and shrugged, causing her to give him an odd look. When had he ever smiled at her before?  
  
"We have to get to the cage," Dru announced with sudden urgency "Or we'll miss our opportunity to save Spike, and then he'll be damaged in both dimensions." Angelus shot her a suspicious look.  
  
"Save?" he repeated "Don't you mean 'kill'?" Drusilla's smile fell from her face and she motioned for them to follow her up the ladders and out of the sewer, which they did thankfully. The place was making them more than a little nautious. As they walked, Angelus began to wonder why this had happened. Why would the Powers That Be go through all this trouble? To mess with some lives? Liven things up a bit? He didn't think so. But he was curious to find out. That was why he was following Drusilla towards the woods, where she insisted they'd find Spike.  
  
"You did what?" Dawn exclaimed in disbelief after Buffy had given her a short account of what had happened with Spike. The Slayer went to reply, but her sister didn't give her a chance "How could you try to kill him knowing what he's been through?" Buffy frowned.  
  
"What he's been through?" she repeated in confusion, and Dawn's surprise seemed to grow.  
  
"Oh, that's why," she sighed, as if her sister were profoundly stupid "You didn't know."  
  
"Know what?" Buffy cried. She did have places to go. Dawn rolled her eyes at the Slayer's lack of knowledge and reeled off a shortened version of what Spike had told her.  
  
"...So everything that's happened here, happened there, but with him." she finished.  
  
"So?"  
  
"So?!" Dawn exploded. Why had she been stuck with a retard for a sister? "You should've seen his face when I told him you'd died here too. He'd blamed himself, Buffy. He looked more human than -"  
  
"But he's not!" Buffy shouted over the teen's protest, then lowered her voice when she stopped "Sure he's probably a nice enough guy, but the fact remains that Spike's a vampire in both dimensions. And it's my job to slay vampires."  
  
"Not ones who loved you so much he was willing to risk his own life to save me, just so you wouldn't be in pain." Dawn shot back. Buffy's clamped her mouth shut and grabbed her coat off the back of the sofa where she'd flung it. "Where are you going?" Her sister demanded.  
  
"To sort a few things out." she replied vaguely and left, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Oh dear God. He was awake. Spike's clear blue eyes opened a crack and squinted into the light shining down on him. He wasn't on the operating table, was he? Well, his head felt numb, he was buckled to a sheet of strong metal, and he was pretty sure that the guy frowning at him was a surgeon. No, definitely not an operating table. This was a king size, luxury bed, of course. They hadn't just not bothered to anaesthetise him after being hit on the head, had they? Things were getting sloppy in -  
  
"He's awake, sir." The young man who had been frowning at him announced. Someone behind him sighed deeply, as if this was the epitome of rudeness. "Shall I get the shot?" The frowning guy asked.  
  
"Erm," The head surgeon mused. Meanwhile, Spike's mind was screaming out to him. Get the shot. Get the shot. Get the shot. Don't leave me conscious. Get the shot. "Yes, get the shot." The vampire actually sighed in relief, causing the surgeon to lean over so he could see him. "We're not barbarians," he informed him casually "We wouldn't leave you conscious during an operation." Well, that settled it, he was definitely not on an operating table getting a chip implanted. Again.  
  
Luke hummed along to the tune playing on his headphones, casting only the occasional glance to the thick metal door he was supposed to be watching. He loved this song. Didn't have a clue who it was by, though. He'd just bought the CD by accident one day instead of New Found Glory because the covers were both green. He leant back in his chair, congratulating himself on being in the Initiative for the millionth time that night, and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he was snapped back to reality by a loud crackle from the intercom followed by a voice. He whipped off his headphones hurredly.  
  
"Mission successfully accomplished," Buffy bluffed convincingly, hoping they just had some rookie on the door who'd let her in. "I'm reporting back for.." she paused before finishing lamely "Report."  
  
Luke looked through the spy-hole and frowned. Did they have women in the Initiative? Yeah, Miss Walsh had told him that they gave everyone a chance, and he assumed that meant women too.  
  
"Right, just give me a minute," he said, pushing the intercom button after a hesitation "They've got real tricky controls installed here." After a minute or so, Luke finally pushed the right series of buttons and Buffy strolled right in.  
  
"Thanks." She smiled politely to him with a nod. Luke grinned and went back to listening to his personal CD player. The Slayer shook her head as she walked away. Why would anyone give him a job letting people into a secret demon-killing organisation? Probably just equal opportunists. Anyway, she was in now, and all that was left to do was to find Spike and...And what? After Dawn's talk, her mind had been turning over everything said all the way here. He'd really loved her. Even risked his life just to keep Buffy from feeling pain. Maybe she could just keep this one vampire alive... 


	8. Chapter 8 (Spike)

(Spike)  
  
"Open your eyes." Okay, this was a nicer wake-up call than the last time. Last time he hadn't got a wake-up call, but that wasn't the point. Spike opened his mouth and gasped in some un-needed air, his throat rasping as he tried to say something. He failed miserably. Maybe that was because a gag had been shoved in his mouth. His blue eyes cracked open, but immediately squeezed shut again as a blinding white light burned into them. Why was everything white in these places? Did no one think that people maybe might need some darkness after having major surgery?  
  
"Oy, get up." Wait a second. Spike recognised that voice. He forced his eyes to stay open and groaned. Angelus stood next to him, and was all set to give him a kick when he was stopped.  
  
"Leave him," It was Drusilla. "He's awake." Spike, thinking they were there to stake him, curled up into a tight ball on the ground. Not his usual style, but neither was being gagged on the floor of a secret-demon killing prison after having a chip shoved in his brain.  
  
"Why isn't he speaking?" Darla queried, wondering if they had messed up his speech during the operation.  
  
"Might have something to do with the gag in his mouth, Darla." Angelus said patronisingly. Spike heard her mutter some sort of insult to him before he was roughly brought out from his protective position and the gag was yanked from his mouth. He gulped in some air and coughed shortly before speaking.  
  
"Why'd y' bother comin' here to stake me?" he croaked, his head feeling it was about to explode "Why not just save yourselves the trouble and wait 'till I escape?" Angelus laughed.  
  
"Escape!" He repeated scornfully "Confident, aren't you?"  
  
"He escaped last time." Drusilla defended him in a rare authoritive tone. Angelus turned to frown at her, but her attention was on the heap on the floor "And we're not here to kill you, silly rabbit." she whispered.  
  
Spike raised an eyebrow. What was going on now? He hadn't changed worlds again, had he? The confusion proved too taxing for his aching brain and he promptly blacked out, plunging into his longed for darkness.  
  
The Slayer marched up to what looked like the front desk and leant on it casually. The guy, who had been reading something which looked like latin, peered at her over his glasses and frowned.  
  
"Help you?" he asked her in a refined British accent which radiated importance. Buffy, however, wasn't daunted and offered him her brightest, most amiable smile.  
  
"Yes," she replied, the painted on smile still lingering "I was wondering where I might find hostile 17's cell?" Buffy stopped with a jolt. Why had she said 17? Did that have any significance at all? Nope. She had just...just...known. The guy frowned again and checked his computer at lightning speed.  
  
"And by who's authority are you here?" he queried suspiciously. Buffy smiled to stall things before her brain actually came into play.  
  
"Miss Walsh." she responded confidently. The guy, who she saw by his name tag was called Mark, looked doubtful for a moment, but finally came to the conclusion that she wouldn't be there if she didn't have reason to be. He leant back in his chair and pressed a red button which opened up a large door leading to a row of white cells.  
  
"Second to the end," Mark told her "On the right." Buffy smiled at him yet again and walked quickly through. Security here just got better and better.  
  
Mark sighed heavily as the young blonde appeared at his desk again. He peered over the book in an exact mirror of his earlier action, and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Help you?" he queried in a supremely bored tone. Buffy didn't smile this time.  
  
"Yeah, you said hostile 17 was second to the end on the right?" she asked and watched as he nodded ever so slowly. "Could you check again?" Mark continued to stare blankly at her for another few seconds before rolling his eyes and turning back to his computer.  
  
"Second to the end," he told her patronisingly "On the right."  
  
"Yeah well," Buffy paused "He's kinda not." Mark looked at her intently.  
  
"What do you mean?" he asked, sounding just slightly worried now. The Slayer chewed her lip.  
  
"He's not there." she informed him carefully. Mark remained in his seat for a moment before darting up and running down the corridor to check if Buffy had been telling the truth. She heard a loud curse before he reappeared, his eyes wild with panic. He grabbed a phone and dialed a number speedily.  
  
"Hostile 17 has escaped," Mark told the person on the other end, losing his previous calm. He paused and nodded along "Yes that's Spike, he's gone." Buffy didn't bother waiting for the end of the conversation. She ran back the way she'd came and only stopped once to order Luke to open the door for her. She had to get to Dawn. If anyone would know where he might be, it would most probably be her. Buffy actually physically hesitated. Why? Why would Dawn know? Why had she known that Spike was refered to as hostile 17? Why was she more worried about Spike than what he was going to do? What was going on?  
  
Angelus blinked and suddenly became aware where he was and what had happened to him. He was in the factory, and the last thing he remembered was Drusilla looking into his eyes. So it didn't take a genius to figure out she'd hypnotised him and lead him here. The question was - why? He tried to move, but found his limbs to be amazingly heavy. Okay, so Dru didn't want him getting away, but where was she? He peered over his shoulder slightly and spotted Darla, also coming to, on the stairs behind the chair on which he was sat. He waited until it looked as though the penny had dropped before speaking.  
  
"Any ideas?" he asked with a sigh. Darla struggled a bit before answering.  
  
"Apart from that maybe, just maybe, Drusilla's insane?" She drawled "Nope. Not one." Angelus' head snapped round as he heard footsteps approaching. Dru appeared in the doorway.  
  
"Goody," she smiled eerily "You're awake. Now we can get to work." Angelus snarled.  
  
"Dru," he glared at her "What are you up to? Why've you got us like this? Where's Spike?"  
  
Drusilla tutted slowly "Questions get you nowhere if you don't want the answers." she replied before elaborating "You don't really want to know." she whispered.  
  
"No, believe me, we do." Darla piped up angrily. Drusilla paused before smiling.  
  
"Okie dokie!" she beamed "I'll tell you, then." And without another word, she danced out of the room. Angelus turned his head again, but was stopped from speaking.  
  
"You ask if I have any ideas again and I'll kill you." she warned, and upon receiving a questioning look explained "Why the hell would I have any ideas? I'm in the exact same position as you." He shrugged - well, tried to - and turned back to the door.  
  
"Something tells me this isn't going to be pretty." he sighed as he heard Drusilla approaching again, followed by the heavy footsteps of someone half- asleep.  
  
The chilling rendition of a song Spike was sure he recognised interrupted his dreams and forced him awake. His crystal blue eyes widened when he saw where he was. The factory. How had that happened? Last thing he remembered...Spike's shoulders sank as his mind caught up with current affairs. He'd been chipped. Again. And still the humming didn't cease. He tried to turn, but found his feet rooted to the ground.  
  
"Dru, what are y' doin'?" he asked curiously, not just a little bit annoyed. "I mean, it's great that y' took me outta the Initiative, but why've y' got me planted to the floor?" She didn't come forward, but continued to hum, doing something of an undisclosed nature behind him. Spike rolled his eyes and took a better look around. It was then he spotted the others. "So when did you get to the party?" he queried drily of his companions, also stuck where they were.  
  
"We woke up about five minutes ago." Angelus supplied in a bored tone. Spike nodded.  
  
"Oh." he said simply. Well how much could you say to someone who was trying to kill you earlier that day? Apart from a few obscenities that even Spike was hesitant to mutter.  
  
"Shh," Drusilla cooed, appearing at his side and putting a long, delicate finger on his lips. "I must concentrate," she announced in a whisper "And you're inviting the audience to speak." He sighed heavily, remembering the times they had shared with each other. She used to always come out with things like that, and Spike had prided himself on being able to translate everything she said. Now the best he could offer was a shrug. Suddenly, Dru grabbed his face and shoved her hand over his mouth.  
  
"I said," she told him evenly in a dangerously calm voice "Shut. Up." He glanced across at Darla, who was frowning intensely. For the first time, he found himself wanting to know what she was thinking. He didn't have to wait long before she spoke what was on her mind.  
  
"What are you up to?" The blonde murmered, almost to herself. Drusilla glanced over at her and tapped her nose secretively. She'd find out soon enough. They all would.  
  
Dawn tried to put the events her sister had thrown at her into order. "And who do you think it is that's got him?" she asked, realising that was what was missing from her account.  
  
"Well that's the thing..." Buffy mumbled, letting the sentence trail off. Her sister sighed.  
  
"You don't know." she filled in. The Slayer was quick to try and make suggestions however.  
  
"I was hoping you'd help with that, though." she informed her in a hurried voice. Dawn turned to face her straight on and shot her a questioning look. "Because you seem to have some sort of - I dunno, 'connection' with him." Her sister put her hands on her hips.  
  
"The same 'connection' you're denying?" She prodded. Buffy glared at her.  
  
"I don't have any connection with any vampire." she insisted firmly. Dawn rolled her eyes.  
  
"Then how did you know which cell Spike was in?" she queried purposefully. Buffy didn't have a reasonable reply, so kept her mouth clamped shut.  
  
"Where would Spike be?" she demanded quietly. Dawn shrugged with an evil smirk on her face.  
  
"You tell me." she responded before racing to her room and leaving Buffy by herself in the front room. Why had she been stuck with Satan's most devilish imp for a little sister? She leant against the wall and massaged her temples, as if trying to coax her brain to work. Where would he be? Where would he be? Where would he be? A new thought interrupted her train of others. Where he was when he first came here. The Slayer started. Who's were these thoughts invading her mind? She shook herself free of her trance- like state and stood up straight. She didn't care if it took her all night, she was going to find Spike and ask him just what he was doing there. And she'd start with...Where would she start? Buffy sighed resignedly.  
  
"Dawn?" 


	9. Chapter 9 (Other Spike)

(Other Spike)  
  
A mix between fear, excitement and suspicion rushed through Spike as he followed the large Morhrag demon, who's name he'd found out to be Marti, down a long corridor which had sprouted from yet another corridor at the back of the Bronze's rival club, 'Intense'. Had his heart been beating, it would have leapt when Marti had informed him that he would be un-chipped as soon as he wanted. Of course he'd said 'now', but now he was worried about the authenticity of this whole thing. In his own world he had a lot of enemys, but in this he helped humans so he must have about twice as many.  
  
"You're lucky you're getting to meet The Boss," Marti told him over his shoulder "No one usually gets the honour. But you," the demon paused and opened a door "Well, he seems to like you more than most." Spike glanced at him as he walked through the door which was being politely held open for him. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? "That's a good thing." Marti assured him, as though reading his mind, and then they were back on their way down endless corridors and through countless doors all in search of the mysterious Boss.  
  
"What's up with this place?" Spike moaned after ten minutes had passed "Were y' hopin' that if anyone found their way in here, they'd just get bored to death before they found The Boss?" Marti chuckled, a wheezy sound which reminded Spike very much of the infamous Mutley.  
  
"We'll be there in a minute." He informed him with a smile. The vampire lit a cigarette and frowned.  
  
"Should bloody well think so, too." he muttered and took a long drag before almost crashing into Marti as he whirled around and stopped dead in front of him.  
  
"I thought we made ourselves clear last time," he said coldly, a world away from his demeanor only seconds ago "The Boss doesn't like cigarettes." Spike rolled his eyes and stubbed his cig out delicately, so he could save it until later, and shoved it in his pocket. As quick as lightning, the demon was all smiles again and motioned for Spike to go through a door on his left.  
  
"End of the line." He announced, almost ominously, and watched as the vampire cautiously made his way through into the presence of the illustrious Boss.  
  
"Spike," A loud, deep voice boomed as the vampire stepped into the room and let Marti shut the door behind him. The man behind the voice was nowhere to be seen. "I've been wanting to meet you."  
  
"Yeah, same." Spike replied drily, without a hint of emotion in his tone. He didn't give a damn about this guy, all he wanted was the operation, and he wanted it now. Then he noticed the screen in the corner of the room and realised the guy must be behind it. He was right. The Boss emerged from behind the screen with a calm smile on his face. He was huge, at least 7 ft 3, and was pure muscle. He was one of those people who immediately made you uneasy, and enjoyed that fact. Luckily, Spike was one of those people too, and so wasn't that intimidated. Sure, the guy looked like he could crush him like a bug without even trying, but he didn't appear too fast, something that Spike definitely was.  
  
"You know, it's funny," The Boss began with that dangerously amiable smile still on his face "You claimed that you've already paid your money, and yet my sources have received only half." Spike was surprised. Not that he had acquired that information so quickly, but that he had been able to pay off half of what he owed. "So maybe you were planning on paying the rest now...?" The vampire nodded.  
  
"Yeah," he said slowly, thinking how best to defuse this potentially fatal situation "How much is it I owe you, again?" The Boss ambled over to his large desk, sat down, and after leafing through a few papers supplied him with the amount.  
  
"Twenty dollars." he informed him in his loud voice. Spike frowned.  
  
"Meaning the entire thing cost me forty?" he tried to hide a smile as The Boss nodded. Fine by him. Now he just had to hope and pray he had twenty dollars somewhere on him. In his world he'd had no need for money, but in this one he'd need to buy blood so... "Here y' go." Spike grinned, pulling a twenty out of his coat pocket and handing it across. "One operation, please."  
  
As Buffy rushed around the house in search of a missing ear-ring, she was half aware that she hadn't seen Dawn once that morning. Except when she'd stuck her head in her sister's room to tell her to get up, but that was an hour and a half ago. She wasn't still in bed, was she? The Slayer rolled her eyes at her younger sister's lazyness and turned suddenly as she decided to go and re-wake her, only to find Dawn stood in the doorway. Buffy yelped in surprise and sighed.  
  
"Creepy staring, much?" she quipped, raising an eyebrow at her sister's intent look.  
  
"I - I was just, erm," Dawn tried haltingly, but Buffy cut her off. In fact she had been thinking about Spike's revelation about his and Buffy's relationship (if you could call it that) and had been caught off guard after trying to avoid her. "Just..."  
  
"Watching me?" she supplied. Dawn narrowed her eyes at her and turned on her heel. "Have you had breakfast? Where are you going? When will you be back?" Buffy called after her, doing a brilliant impression of their dear departed mother.  
  
"Yes, out, and I don't know." Dawn replied, vaguely answering each question in turn. Buffy stopped what she was doing and turned around.  
  
"What?" But she was talking to herself now as her little sister had left the house, letting the front door slam noisily shut. Buffy shrugged. It was Saturday so she was probably just...what the heck did Dawn do on Saturdays? Whatever. She'd come home soon. How much was there to do in Sunnydale when it was raining and overcast, anyway? Where could you go?  
  
Dawn gave the sleeping vampire a nudge upon finding him asleep on a tomb in his crypt. Spike didn't stir in the slightest. She gave him another, harder, shove in the side and this time he moaned.  
  
"Spike?" she called down his ear, wondering why he was still sleeping at this time of day. She checked her watch and frowned. Since when had it been 11am? Okay, so now he did have a reason for being asleep, but why was it that he wouldn't wake up? "Spike!" This time he scrunched up his eyes and tried to turn over, only to mutter something that sounded like 'ow' and remain on his back. He slowly forced his eyes to open and squinted at what was hovering over him. Dawn.  
  
"What?" he asked, too tired and drowsy to sound anything like how irritated he was at her.  
  
"I was just bored and thought I'd come and see how you were." she told him cheerily.  
  
"Asleep." Spike grumbled and closed his eyes again. Dawn rolled her eyes and went to give him another shove when she noticed something distinctly off-colour about a patch of hair on the back of his head. It was resolutely pink, and the reason was the long, thin gash lining his skull.  
  
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed worredly "What did that to your head?" Spike shook himself awake and dragged himself into a sitting position. He was desperate to say 'a skilled surgeon and a sharp knife' but he hadn't the strength to be witty. Also, it would ruin his whole plan. So he simply shrugged.  
  
"Demon." he said weakly, watching the room spin uncontrollably around him and feeling the pain throbbing in his head increase. Dawn turned him around, finding him too sapped of strength to even protest the contact, and examined his head.  
  
"Weird." she mused aloud, and upon his question elaborated "It just looks so..precise." Spike mumbled some lie about something or other before suddenly collapsing on the stone tomb and being engulfed in black, where he was met with a strange dream...  
  
~ With a sudden shock, Spike found himself in a deep red room, filled with black flowers, each stretching to be higher and prouder than the other. He reached out a hand to try and touch one of them, but it immediately shattered, sending shards of glass spraying out around the room. This set off a chain reaction in which every other flower broke, showering the room with sharp black glass. Spike didn't flinch. He just stood there and took it. And he was rewarded by not even being scratched in the slightest by the rain of petals and stems. He blinked, and then it was all gone. He was no longer in the red room, but in a black one. The purest black he had ever seen. But it was made imperfect by the pair of feral golden eyes gleaming at him in the near distance.  
  
"Where are you?" The voice belonged to Drusilla, as did, he soon discovered, the eyes. She stepped towards him gracefully, her arms outstretched. Spike frowned and tried to walk towards her, but he found himself rooted to the ground. In an instant, he was thrown about again, and this time found himself in the old factory. In front of him was Angelus and his beloved Darla, both looking at him curiously. And again came the whisper. "Where are you?"  
  
"I'm here." Spike replied, wanting to just grab them all and shake them. It seemed they were looking right through him. The only saving grace was that the pain had gone from his head. There was no response to his announcement, so he repeated it. "I'm here." Nothing.  
  
"Where are you?" It was Darla this time. Spike felt a sudden stab of panic.  
  
"I'm here!" he shouted, as loud as he could manage, but no one noticed so he continued. "Help me! I'm lost and I can't get home!" And then he was back in the red room, and all the black flowers were repaired. Over his shoulder he heard Drusilla's voice one last time.  
  
"Go away," she ordered him in a vicious whisper "This isn't yours. Go away." Then he came screaming back to the harsh reality ~  
  
The Slayer actually stepped back in shock when, in his sleep, Spike shouted "I'm lost and I can't get home!" She remembered her own dream and was immediately worried. What did this all mean? Dawn had came and gotten her after Spike had collapsed, and brought her to his crypt spouting worries about whether or not he was dying after some awful attack. So here she was, listening to him mumble in his sleep and hoping he would wake up soon, if not for his sake then for Dawn's, who was pacing the crypt furiously biting her nails.  
  
"Dawn, stop that." she told her distractedly. Her little sister reluctantly took her fingers from her mouth and showed some mercy to the chewed stubs that were once her nails.  
  
"Why isn't he waking up?" She queried in a panicked voice. On cue, Spike sat bolt upright with a surprised yelp. He groaned and clutched his head, squeezing his eyes shut and not even noticing the two girls crowded around him. He slowly opened his eyes again and yelped for the second time.  
  
"You okay?" Buffy asked him, trying to sound cold, but coming off as reluctantly concerned. Which she was. She hadn't forgotten about him trying to bite her, and it was unlikely she ever would in the near future. Maybe if he offered some explanation she might forgive him, but for now...  
  
"My head." Spike complained in a croaky voice, still clasping his hands to his wound. Then he remembered why his head was pounding and almost smiled through his pain. The chip had been removed. And all for fourty dollars. That was certainly unexpected. Now all that there was left to do was to check the operation had been successful and he could get onto trying to kill the girl stood right in front of him, looking pathetically concerned for his well-being. "Somethin' attacked me." he lied.  
  
"I know, Dawn told me," The Slayer informed him "What happened? Why'd you pass out?"  
  
"Oh I dunno, somethin' to do with the blinding pain in my skull, do y' think?" Spike drawled drily. Buffy nodded stiffly before suddenly leaving the crypt. There was obviously something still wrong with him, and she didn't want to be around him whilst he was like this. Dawn could baby him for a while, because she didn't care. Much. 


	10. Chapter 10 (Other Spike)

(Other Spike)  
  
The Boss stretched in his large, custom made leather chair and tried to stifle a yawn. He had come here to get some interesting and 'shocking' news (according to Marti, anyway) but so far he remained unimpressed. The three young men in front of him had been spouting rubbish about nothing in particular for ten minutes now, and that had way surpassed The Boss's attention span. He took another look at each man in turn. In fact, they weren't men at all. And they certainly weren't young. They just looked it. The three before him were ancient oracles, with the power to look into the future and the past and to predict what would happen in both time periods. That was why he had agreed to meet them. Who wouldn't when presented with a profile like that? When they had first entered his huge office, he had been surprised. He had been expecting a group of truly powerful looking demons, twice as big as him, who walked with a supreme confidence in themselves and who immediately took charge of every room and every sitution they were involved in. Instead, they were three decidedly skinny young humans (well, he used the label 'humans' loosly, they simply looked human) who seemed to be of a very nervous nature. They shuffled self-consciously into his office and offered him a polite hello and a meek handshake, before beginning to rattle on about something using terms only a genius would understand. The Boss was no idiot - if he was would he be able to run a whole city situated on a Hellmouth? - but he had been totally left behind. He was going to kill Marti if these guys didn't start amazing him real soon. Well, not literally of course, he'd known Marti since the thirteenth century, but he'd certainly be getting a really long lecture.  
  
"Hold on," The Boss interrupted the smallest mid-sentence; the one with the mop of black curls "I'm a very busy demon, guys, and much as I appreciate you coming -"  
  
"But you don't." The ginger one cut him off. "For the past five minutes you've been ignoring us. And in that time you've completely missed why we are here."  
  
"Which is?" The Boss asked, trying to control his temper at being interrupted.  
  
"Someone has tampered with the dimensions," The largest, a blond guy told him. "Someone I think you know quite well."  
  
"You're kidding me, right?" The Boss queried with an uncertain smile on his face. This time when the three had spoken to him, they hadn't beaten about the bush, and he had given them his undivided attention. So he was pretty sure that they were insane.  
  
"We don't kid around." the blond assured him, totally serious. The Boss glanced amusedly across at Marti, but his look was returned by a worried one from his friend.  
  
"You don't believe this, do you?" he asked. Marti took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.  
  
"I don't know, Matthew." He replied with a sigh. Marti was the only one who had ever been permitted to use The Boss's real name, mainly because 'Matthew' wasn't really a name that would strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, and he wanted it to remain a secret. "These guys are pretty prestigeous."  
  
"So am I," The Boss argued with a laugh "But I don't go around telling people that a vampire your surgeon operated on last night was in fact from another dimension, and that he's causing the collapse of the barriers between worlds." He laughed again. "That's nuts."  
  
"And so is the notion that demons exist, to some people." the black haired man bickered "You can't assume that what you know and believe is where things end. There's a whole other world - billions of others, in fact - but they don't cease to exist just because you think that the concept is 'nuts'." Matthew stayed silent, thinking over everything that had just been said to him. According to these three oracles, Spike wasn't really Spike. He was a different one from another dimension in which he had only just arrived in Sunnydale and was therefore un-chipped in the first place.  
  
"I still don't believe it." He grumbled unhappily. He hated being shown up as knowing less than someone else, and this was, in his opinion, a massive insult to his intellect.  
  
"You don't have to believe it," the ginger oracle told him calmly "Just help stop the barriers from falling down. If that happens, the world will - very literally - end."  
  
"And how do I prevent that from happening?" The Boss asked with a resigned sigh.  
  
It was the black haired man who answered. "Kill Spike."  
  
Would she just get that goddam cloth off his head? Was she not aware it was freezing cold, and really irritating the cut on his head instead of helping it? Obviously not, Spike thought as Dawn pressed the wet cloth harder onto the gash on the back of his head. She had been hanging round in his crypt, torturing him with cloth after cloth, for over an hour now, and the gimick was turning sour.  
  
"Why don't y' go see what your big sis is up to, eh?" he suggested with a grunt of pain as she increased the pressure for the millionth time. Was she trying to see how hard she'd have to press until the stupid thing went straight through his head, or what? That was what it felt like. In fact, Dawn was only gently placing it on, not wanting to hurt him in the slightest.  
  
"Because I'm here looking after you." She answered with a sickly sweet smile. "And I'm gonna stay and look after you 'till you feel better." Spike curled his upper lip in disgust.  
  
"I don't need lookin' after." he informed her in an angry tone. Dawn rolled her eyes. Typical male. 'No, I'll fix it. Of course I know best. The plague? Ha! That can't kill me.'  
  
"You can't fool me," she assured him, relieving the pressure from his head and skipping over to the effort of a sink he had in the corner of his crypt to dampen the cloth. "You'll feel better when I'm gone, believe me."  
  
"Oh I do, don't worry." Spike muttered, gingerly touching the wound on the back of his head. It felt as thought the surgeon had done a pretty decent job closing the thing up. And he hadn't messed his hairline up, so he was safe on that front. Now if he could just get the Slayer's sister to bugger off he'd be fine. Well, as soon as the thumping pain stopped. Dawn returned with another cloth and brought it towards his head, only to have him grab her wrist roughly. "You touch me with another bloody wet cloth and I swear..." he growled fiercely. Dawn yelped, remembering what Xander had told her the other night, and hurredly backed away from him. Just grumpy, she told herself, grumpy and injured. Certainly not un-chipped. No way. She continued to tell herself this as she replaced the cloth and rubbed her wrist which didn't hurt. It didn't. Because if it did and Spike wasn't shouting in pain, that would mean he was un-chipped. And he wasn't. No way. So it didn't hurt.  
  
'Sunset Beach'. The cream of the crop when it came to crappy, soppy and just plain pathetic daytime television. Buffy wasn't a religious watcher of it or anything, but it came in handy when she was bored, upset and had nothing better to do. All of which applied as she sat staring at the screen eating a bar of chocolate she'd discovered in her bare cupboards. She was irritated with herself for not standing up to Spike and asking what was going on with him, and irritated with Ben for not realising that his twin brother Derek was obviously behind the scandal on tv.  
  
"Could it be..." Ben mused aloud with his trademark 'Im thinking really hard' look. "Derek?"  
  
"Of course it's Derek, you stupid -" Buffy didn't get to finish her insult as the doorbell rang. She quickly switched the tv off, not wanting to be caught watching something so blantantly sad, and hurried to the door. She flung it open and found Xander standing there with Anya on his arm.  
  
"Morning." Xander greeted her with an amiable smile.  
  
"Afternoon." She corrected him as she let the couple in and motioned to the clock which told them it was 12:45pm. Anya looked around the house with the same innocent smile on her face as always.  
  
"It's strangely quiet here today," she commented to Buffy "Dawn at a friends?"  
  
"In a creepy way, yes." The Slayer replied with a sigh "She's at Spike's."  
  
"Spike's?" Xander repeated, sounding more than a bit urgent. "Why?" he demanded.  
  
"Well," Buffy said slowly, frowning at his demeanor "He's got this huge cut down the back of his head and he passed out when she went to see him this morning. So she's 'looking after him'."  
  
"A cut down the back of his head?" Anya repeated and gave her fiancee a shove in the ribs when the Slayer nodded. Buffy was beginning to get worried. What were they keeping from her?  
  
"What is it?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest so they knew she wasn't going to let this one slide without being answered properly.  
  
"Think, Buffy," Anya said patronisingly "Spike has a cut on the back of his head and he's been acting more violently then usual. That all points to...?"  
  
The Slayer suddenly felt very sick. "The chip."  
  
As she ran, Buffy's mind screamed through everything that had ever transpired between her and Spike, working backwards from last week when they were sleeping together to when he'd first arrived in Sunnydale and been hellbent on killing her and her friends. The chip couldn't be out. It couldn't. And the worst thing was, not that she was losing someone she had actually grown to love, but that she had been so blind to not see it, and Dawn was in danger because of her blindness. Her little sister was in a crypt with a notorious killer, pampering him like a mother would a child, and it was all because Buffy had been too wrapped up in her own personal problems to notice the blatantly obvious. A cut on the head, mood swings, and the rest of it. Did she need a neon sign? But then again, hadn't Dawn been hanging around in a crypt with a notorious killer all along? Just because Spike couldn't kill then, it didn't mean he hadn't killed thousands of innocent people in his life. It didn't make him any less a vampire. Buffy felt tears threatening to spill out as this realisation hit her. She had fallen in love with a vampire again, and again he'd hurt her. She'd told herself again and again that Spike was different from Angel, but if anything, he was worse. Spike didn't even have a soul. The only reason he wasn't out killing people at that very second was because of the chip. The Slayer corrected herself. How did she know he wasn't killing people right then? No. Not killing 'people'. Killing Dawn. She picked up speed, not caring that she was knocking into the townspeople of Sunnydale, and forced herself to her limit. She needed to get to Spike's crypt and she needed to get there now. And when she got there, she had to put all her feelings aside and kill him.  
  
Spike eyed Dawn's neck hungrily as she wandered around his crypt, talking about everything and anything. What he wouldn't give to just be able to bite down on that little vein and bleed her dry. The vampire didn't even try to surpress a smile. Nothing was stopping him, was it?  
  
"What you smiling at?" Dawn asked him innocently. Spike shrugged.  
  
"Just you." he replied honestly, missing off the part in the middle that went 'killing'. The Slayer's little sister beamed at him, wondering why she had doubted him before. Xander was imagining things.  
  
"Y'couldn't do me a favour could y', pet?" Spike's smile didn't fade. "Could y' put that cloth on the back of my head again?" This was his chance. Dawn hurried over to the sink and grabbed a cloth happily.  
  
Meanwhile, The Boss had just come out from the sewers which connected to Spike's crypt, and was fumbling around in the dark looking for a staircase. In his hand was a long, pointed stake which was intended for Spike. The oracles had finally convinced him of the severity of their case and he had come here to end the vampire's life. His hand touched a step and he smiled. Bingo.  
  
There it was. Buffy, panting with the strain of running, hopped over a grave and reached an anxious hand out as the door to Spike's crypt drew near. If she got there and anything had happened to Dawn, she didn't know what she was going to do. With a final boost of energy, the Slayer slammed into the stone door and flew through it as it flung open.  
  
The stake came plunging towards Spike's heart just as his fangs had settled on Dawn's petite neck. He pulled away and kicked the arm of his attacker, who he found to be The Boss. He released Dawn, who was dragged to one side by Buffy, who then jumped at him. Spike's eyes widened. Surely this wouldn't be his last few moments. Killed by a Slayer in an alternate dimension with a huge demon gunning to end your life on your left aswell. But at the vital moment, Buffy hesitated. Her hand touched Spike's arm and they looked straight in each others eyes. Then, there was black... 


	11. Chapter 11 (Spike)

(Spike)  
  
Why it was necessary for Dawn to tag along, Buffy had no idea, all she knew was that her little sister had insisted that she come and that she claimed the Slayer wouldn't find Spike on her own anyway. In Buffy's opinion, Dawn was coming because she had a crush on the vampire, but she wouldn't say that in case she threw a teenage tantrum. So they walked silently side by side through one of Sunnydale's many graveyards, each trying to think of something to say.  
  
"I think that Angelus, Darla and Drusilla took him." Dawn offered in a know- it-all tone.  
  
"Oh?" Buffy queried with a raised eyebrow "Why do you think that?"  
  
"Well who else knows him here?" Dawn asked. The Slayer thought about it for a second.  
  
"Good point." she conceeded. "And you say they'll be at the factory?" Her sister nodded and then they were back to square one. Silence. It was weird, usually they wouldn't shut up, but now all they could think about was Spike. With each wondering about the safety of the vampire who had come so mysteriously into their lives. Buffy was appalled at the feelings she kept having for him, telling herself that they simply weren't hers, like the thoughts that kept popping up. But they felt so real. She glanced at her surroundings and sighed heavily, supremely irritated at herself.  
  
"What?" Dawn asked, frowning at her sister's annoyed look when she hadn't even said anything.  
  
"We've gone past the factory." Buffy told her with another sigh and motioned to where they were. They'd been so caught up in their thoughts, they had walked round in one big circle to the Bronze. Dawn rolled her eyes and for a second considered asking her sister if they could make a little pit stop in the club as they band playing sounded decent, but then she thought of what might be happening to Spike in the factory and decided against it. She didn't know what Buffy was planning to do when they got there, but Dawn was going to save him. No matter what.  
  
Drusilla was humming that tune again, the one Spike was so sure he recognised, as she glided around the room where her prisoners were stationed, tidying the place up like a proper housewife.  
  
"Dru, we've been here long enough now," Angelus told her in a stern tone "Let us go, the jokes gone sour." She just continued to hum with a content smile on her face. "Drusilla?"  
  
"Leave it, Poof," Spike sighed "She's off in her own little world now. She can't hear y'."  
  
"And how would you know?" Angelus spat back.  
  
"Oh I dunno," Spike narrowed his eyes, his voice dripping sarcasm "Maybe 'cause she's my Sire you bloody idiot." Darla frowned at him.  
  
"No she's not, I am." she insisted, sounding totally confused. Spike rolled his eyes.  
  
"Want me to clear it up for you geniuses?" he drawled patronisingly "In my world Dru Sired me, so her and Darla's roles were reveresed. In this one, everythin's screwed up and Darla Sired me. Need me to say it slower?" Angelus growled a warning in the back of his throat.  
  
"Why are you always so sarcastic?" he asked in an irritated voice. Spike didn't even bother replying, although he was dying to make a comment about him always being so stupid. He just threw him a look of utter contempt. Suddenly, Drusilla whipped round and glared at them.  
  
"You," she hissed, pointing an accusing finger at Spike "If you continue to talk through the performance you shall spoil the magic trick."  
  
"Why you can't just say 'shut up' is beyond me, luv." He replied, noticing for the first time just how irritating all her childish riddles really were. She dug the accusational finger into his chest and narrowed her eyes at him fiercely.  
  
"Did you think it wouldn't hurt me?" Dru asked him with a snarl. Darla perked up at this. Maybe they were close to getting an explanation.  
  
"When you first came, I didn't think it would be so bad," Drusilla informed Spike in a light tone, even with a hint of a smile. "I thought it'd be nice to have some more company. But then my guests wouldn't leave." The tiny smile fell and turned to a scowl. "It got worse every time I saw you. Endless talking, none stop. All I want is some peace and quiet." Spike frowned at her, his mind working feverishly to try and figure out what it was she was actually saying. "But I've outsmarted all of them. I've got a plan to shut them up once and for all." Then it hit him. All the pieces slotted together.  
  
"No!" he exclaimed in protest "Y'can't!"  
  
"Can't what?" Angelus queried, having been left completely behind. Spike glanced over at him with an expression of someone who's just found something nasty on their shoe.  
  
"She's hearing things from the other - from my world." he explained "And 'cause I'm here, they just keep goin', and it's too much for her."  
  
"But she hears voices all the time, dumbass." Angelus snapped, returning the expression.  
  
"I know, but the ones she usually gets come and go. These are constant," He paused "Dumbass."  
  
Drusilla started to him again, covering her ears like a child and moving away from the trio.  
  
"So what's her 'plan'?" Darla asked, sounding as though she had twice as much faith in Spike's intellect than the other vampire on the sofa in front of her. He gulped.  
  
"Goes somethin' like this," he said slowly "Killin' me would make the voices stop. So, her plan is, y'know, 'kill me and the voices'll stop.' " Silence ensued.  
  
"Oh."  
  
Through the silence, Drusilla continued to hum, before suddenly stopping to offer rapturous applause. She reapproached them with a big smile on her face.  
  
"Clever boy!" she praised Spike, sounding like a proud mother "You figured it all out, but you figured it out too late, didn't you?" Her mood darkened "And now I can make the voices stop."  
  
"Dru, pet," Spike drawled in his most persuasive tone, which caused her to pause and look directly at him curiously "Wouldn't it be easier to just send me back?" Drusilla actually found herself considering this. "You could come too, if y' liked. We could go to Spain and watch the bull-fights." Big mistake. He had used Spain as an example because in his world she had always pestered him to take her there, but his comparison had apparently set the voices off and she started to hum again. Her features morphed into their vampiric face and she growled angrily.  
  
"If you would just shut up for one second I could think!" She shouted. In that moment, all three vampires felt her hold on them loosen and they shared a glance.  
  
"I'm always saying that to him." Angelus said with a laugh "Never works, though. Hey Spike? Did you talk all the time in your world?" Spike gave him a sarcastic laugh.  
  
"Only when I wanted to annoy you," he replied "But y'know what was funny? In my world, you got a soul." He atually laughed genuinely at the expression on Angelus' face. Darla was watching Drusilla carefully and noted their plan was working. If they bombarded her mind enough with talk of his world, her hold on them would slip and they could escape. "And you were the Slayer's first love."  
  
"You'd better be lying to me, boy." Angelus growled dangerously.  
  
"No, it's the truth!" Spike protested, he nodded to Dru "Innit, pet?" She suddenly screamed, clutching her head, and the hypnosis failed on two of the vampires, who scurried off. Unfortunately, Spike wasn't one of those two. Now he was left alone with a psychotic vampire who wanted to kill him. Great. Just bloody brilliant.  
  
There it was. The factory. Not a particularly grand building, what with it's crumbling walls and all, but it was still menacing. For the millionth time that day, Buffy found herself remembering things from someone else's mind. She and Giles hadn't burned this to the ground, but her thoughts insisted that was what had happened. From the look on Dawn's face, she was experiencing the same.  
  
"So he's in there, huh?" The Slayer muttered, trying to sound casual. Dawn nodded mutely. "And we're going in to save him, aren't we?" Another nod. "I knew he'd be trouble."  
  
"Didn't you want to kill Spike?" Her little sister asked. It was Buffy's turn to nod.  
  
"Past tense being the key thing in that sentence." she said with a sigh. "It's just I keep getting all these feelings which so aren't mine, and I can't do it. I know I can't kill him." Dawn murmered an agreement. She turned to her sister and forced a smile.  
  
"So, what do you say we go in there and save a vampire from another dimension from his psycho ex who's suffering from voices in her head?" She asked with a strange cheeriness to her tone. Buffy linked her arm in Dawn's.  
  
"Our lives are different from other peoples." she commented drily before slowly pushing the door open and stepping cautiously inside.  
  
Spike's voice reached the pair first as they crept silently through the factories many rooms, trying it's most persuasive tone, but sounding just that little bit worried and apprehensive.  
  
"C'mon, pet," he drawled with a gulp "Y' don't wanna do this. Just think about what I said before. Y' could come to my world where none of the nasty voices could trouble y' ever again." In fact, this was a blatant lie. In his own dimension she still experienced the exact same thing, but he wasn't going to tell her that. Not when she was casually playing with a stake and practising how she'd kill him. Drusilla looked up at him and cocked her head to one side.  
  
"I'd be all alone?" she asked in a sing-song voice, motioning to her head. He nodded hurredly. "Why do you lie to me like this?" Dru wailed, apparently seeing through his deception. Spike cursed under his breath. Now he was done for. She'd hated being lied to before, now she had been lied to whilst having the desire to kill him. That was never good.  
  
"Just let me go." Spike growled, suddenly sounding very stern and very angry "Undo whatever magic you've got workin' on me and let me walk out of here. 'Cause if y' don't -"  
  
"You'll what?" Drusilla scoffed. He almost jumped in surprise. This was a totally new side of her, to him anyway, and it was so out of character that he was shocked. This wasn't his Drusilla. With that realisation, Spike's mind conceeded defeat. He would have been able to turn his Dru around, but this wasn't his Dru. This was someone esle. And this person was raising a stake above her head and about to strike. He took a last breath and suddenly thought what his last words should be. Something ironic? Something sarcastic? Something poetic? Something sincere? Or maybe something like -  
  
"Jesus!" A warm hand took a firm grasp of his shoulder and he literally jumped with surprise. But the stake was still descending. Spike turned to see the owner of the hand was Buffy and they looked straight in each other's eyes. Then, there was black... 


	12. Chapter 12

(Spike)  
  
Spike opened his eyes and frowned. Well this was unexpected. He found himself standing in what looked like a doctor's waiting room, completely bare except for one framed photo of a single sunflower standing alone in a field. Nice. A bit random if you considered the rest of the room, but nice nontheless. He looked down at his chest, half expecting to see a stake protuding from it courtesy of Drusilla, but there was nothing. Well that was a relief. He glanced to his immediate left and had to do a double take. It was him - but - not. It couldn't be...but it was...  
  
"Hey." He tried nervously. The other him looked as shocked as he was.  
  
"Hey." He replied fiddling with his red shirt. Spike noted this down interestedly. He'd chucked that shirt ages ago. He favoured the full black look now. Red-shirt was still staring at him.  
  
"So," Spike nodded at nothing in particular and threw Red-shirt a small smile. "What you in for?" The other him laughed, a little louder than was necessary, and smiled back at him.  
  
"Did you - I - whatever. Did you nearly, like, y'know, die?" Red-shirt stammered.  
  
"Dru got sick of the voices in her head I was causing and staked me." Spike replied simply. "You?"  
  
"Not too sure." Red-shirt frowned. "Either the Slayer did me in 'cause I bit Dawn, or The Boss." Spike's mood changed like lightning. "You bit Nibblet?!" he yelled.  
  
"We bit 'Nibblet'." He corrected. Spike put his head in his hands and after a minute managed a shrug.  
  
"Oh well, I'm dead, what do I care?" he sighed. After all, what did he have to look forward to now? A life of torment in hell at the hands of demons. Adding guilt wouldn't help any.  
  
"Good looking guy, aren't we?" He quipped after a silence. Spike grinned. He liked having another him around. Even if it was confusing as hell. There was the sound of a buzzer and their attention was drawn to a electronic sign. 'Spike, come to room 6' It flashed. They hesitated a second before standing up simultaniously. Well, why not? Maybe they'd get to choose which hell to go to if they went.  
  
Room 6. There it was. Nice door. Varnished and everything. Now if only they would walk through it they'd be getting somewhere. Spike had been pushing Red-shirt forwards for about two minutes now, but the coward wasn't budging. He was a right ponce...Wait, that was wrong.  
  
"Come in, for God's sake!" A loud voice shouted, sounding irritated at their hesitation to enter, and the door swung open. Red-shirt glanced at Spike again. He sighed heavily and shoved past the red shirt wearing version of himself. What was his deal? They found themselves in a large, elegant office, painted a grand shade of crimson, with varnished wood furtniture scattered around the room. There was a huge oval desk at the front of the office, and behind it was a leather chair, and in that chair was someone who looked like your typical lawyer. Except a demon..so yeah, your typical lawyer.  
  
"Glad you could finally make it." the guy behind the desk said with a humourless smile. Spike looked down at the name plaque on the door they'd just walked through and couldn't surpress a snigger. Red-shirt frowned and Spike pointed to what he'd just read. The other him chuckled quietly too. The guy's name was Billy Bob. That was high and mighty, wasn't it? Didn't exactly radiate power, did it?  
  
"What we here for, then?" Spike asked, controlling a smirk which was threatening to rise up. Billy Bob raised a suspicious eyebrow, but let their arrogance slide just this once.  
  
"Well, I'll be blunt as we don't have much time and I'm a busy man," He said quickly, standing up and walking towards the two. This was too much. The guy was like 5ft. "There's been a mix-up."  
  
"To do with.." Red-shirt motioned to the other him and the lawyer type nodded.  
  
"Seems you were scheduled to die." Billy Bob announced calmly. "But someone messed up."  
  
"So we're not dead now?" Spike queried, beginning to feel confusion creep up on him.  
  
"Is this a trick question?" Billy Bob frowned at the vampires, but didn't give them time to answer "I mean you aren't dust. There's just been a mistake."  
  
Red-shirt nodded along with what he was saying. "So explain," he drawled "What mistake?"  
  
Billy Bob leant over his desk and shuffled through a multitude of papers, muttering through names.  
  
"Ah here we go," he mumbled to the vampires "William the Bloody, right?" They shared a glance as he once again continued without an reply. They hated being called that. "Yes, it seems that you were scheduled to be killed a couple of days ago b-"  
  
"By who?" Spike interrupted curiously. Billy Bob glared at him.  
  
"It could have been one of a few people," He answered vaguely. Spike raised an eyebrow at him, obviously not buying that. "Anyway, instead of dying and being sent to me : Death, y-"  
  
"Wait a second," Red-shirt stopped him, his voice wavering with witheld laughter "You're Death?" Billy Bob nodded proudly and the two identicals shared a highly amused grin. Who would've thought that Death's name was actually Billy Bob? That'd be a new story for the boys at Willie's.  
  
"As I was saying," He began again, in a dangerously calm voice, as he perched on the edge of his desk. "Instead of being sent to me, you just swapped worlds."  
  
"Meanin'?" Spike asked, still not having taken the situation in completely.  
  
"Meaning someone wanted to keep you alive for a while longer." Death informed him. The vampires suddenly took a shock of reality. What did that mean? No Hell when they actually did die? "Don't let it go to your head, boys. I'll be seeing you." And with that, everything returned to normal.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
(Other Spike)  
  
Where was he? Sunnydale. Good. Which one? Spike felt a bout of panic as he whipped around on the cold, empty street. What if he was in a different world altogether?  
  
"Spike?" It was Darla. He turned to find her, Drusilla and Angelus all looking over at him "What are you doing out here?" Spike jogged forwards and hugged her tightly.  
  
"Just out on a walk, pet." He replied with a sigh. Thank God he was in the right one. He released his Sire and looked over to the other two to find Dru looking absolutely baffled.  
  
"You were from another dimension." she told him in a sharp whisper. Spike gulped. He should have known she'd pick something up. He just managed to squeeze out a laugh.  
  
"Sure, Dru, whatever." Spike bluffled, shrugging off her comment as if it were just another of her random ramblings. Angelus gave him a pat on the back.  
  
"So," he sounded tired and bored. Probably because the conversation wasn't revolving around him for once. "What did you find out about our Slayer?" Spike laughed.  
  
"Everythin' and a little bit more."  
  
#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#  
  
(Spike)  
  
Spike found himself stood in Willie's bar, his hand on the chipped blue door which lead to the back room. He withdrew his hand as though he had just touched fire and whirled round to find the bar-tender giving him a funny look.  
  
"Willie, who am I?" He asked urgently. The snitch frowned at him.  
  
"Spike." He said, very slowly, drawing out each syllable. To his surprise, the vampire simply smiled and turned to walk through the door to the back room. He found Buffy sat there, her arms folded across her chest, with a scowl on her face. Spike bent next to her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. She stared at him as he stood up again and lit a cigarette.  
  
"What happened to you?" she queried in amusement. He raised an eyebrow at her. What did she mean? Did he look different? Did she know about the whole world-swapping thing? "A minute ago you looked about ready to bite my head off, and now your all kissy." Spike let out a small sigh of relief and sat across the table from her. Breathing in some acrid smoke and taking in his surroundings properly. It was weird, when he'd been in the other dimension, he'd kind of missed this old place.  
  
"Just realised it was stupid to be mad at y'." He replied, not actually being able to remember what he'd been angry with her for in the first place. Buffy took his hand unexpectantly.  
  
"I'll tell them about us soon." She told him in a gentle voice "I promise." Spike smiled warmly at her and took his hand back so he could take a drag of his cig.  
  
"Now," He cleared his throat, remembering why they had come there in the first place "What we doin' about this Apocalypse?" 


End file.
